A FEVER = More Hospital Time

Yep, you read the title correctly. Oakley developed a slight fever last night. It actually toyed with us through the night. It bounced from 99.0 to 100.9. But by morning, he was holding on to 100.6 and complaining of a sore mouth and throat. Both side effects of the VinCristine that he's receiving. Anyway, when a fever of 100.4+ lasts longer than 1 hour, we're supposed to call PCMC. Yep, that's what I did and this is what happened... we knew what to expect which is why we were dreading making the call...

PCMC protocol: Head to the local ER, get a CBC and blood culture then start an IV antibiotic. If the ANC (absolute neutrophil count) is okay, we get to go home after a "few hours". If the ANC is low, (below 500) then they start a longer antibiotic and we're admitted to the hospital for a minimum of 48 hours. AND THEN... we wait it out, yeah! He must go 24 hours without a fever and show improvement in his ANC levels.

So, here we are at the hospital. Oakley doesn't like the hospital at all! He's completely shut off from everyone. I'm not sure if he's sick of people coming in to bug him or if he's just too tired to fight at all. Probably a combination of both. His ANC was low (450) so they of course admitted him. BUT, he did manage to kick the fever (actually, I don't think they've taken a high temp reading yet while we've been here) so now it's really up to the pediatrician on how long we have to stay. Dr. Myers likes to hang on to the patients until they show improvement in their ANC.

We got to stay for the next 48 hours. Oakley continued to fight the nurses over checking vitals, checking his port and changing his diapers. He wanted so badly to eat, I think this is his one other comfort, (first being Harry Potter,) but because of the sores in his mouth he was unable to eat anything. This only added to his frustration of being in the hospital. We finally got him to drink Pediasure, his own chocolate milk shakes. He's hooked and that's a good thing because he's losing that plumpness in his cheeks.