Frequent Shopper Points?

Primary's aught to have some sort of frequent shopper discount. Seriously.

Once again, the home health nurse came just minutes after my last blog entry. It was a stressful visit, but in the end, she did manage to get the chemo administered.

At first, she tried to flush the Port, but the needle was bent again. So she de-accessed it, but she didn't know exactly how, and I'm not sure she did it the way she was supposed to. But what mattered was that the bent needle was removed. After that, it wept a sort of clear fluid that was tinged with blood for quite some time. Over time, it turned thicker, until it was just blood. She tried to access the Port at that point, but missed it by a hair. Matthew was absolutely flipping out at this point, but we had to try again. She tried one more time, and we all breathed a huge sigh of relief when she tested it and we saw his blood draw back into the syringe. I think all four of us (Matthew, the nurse, Justin and me) were totally exhausted by this time.

After she got it all taped down, she administered the chemo and a few other things (anti-nausea, Port cleaning agents, and such) and by the time she was done, Matthew's pre-school volunteer teacher (Miss Caroline, who we LOVE!) showed up. She recognized instantly that he needed to play tonight, rather than serious learning. She played with him for half an hour, and he was totally cheered up. Hooray for Miss Caroline!!!

By this time, it was roughly 7:00 at night. We ate pizza, rested, and watched some TV. By 8:20, Mikey was ready to go to bed. I think the rough Home Health visit probably wore him out too - and the girls. Anyway, I told him Matthew would join him in a few minutes. Within 10 minutes, I realized Matthew had a fever.

He had been hovering at about 99.5 or so all day, which happens often. The doctors don't consider it a problem unless it's above 100 for more than an hour, or if it goes over 101 at all. His temp was 100.6 at about 8:20. I knew that we wouldn't have to go in if it was 100.6, unless it stayed that way for an hour. So I waited. That's hard to do though, and I checked it about 20 minutes later, and it read 101.9! I checked in the other ear, and it read 101.6. I decided to give it 10 more minutes to see what happened, and it read 101.3. Either way, 101 is when they tell you to go to the ER, so I called the on call oncologist. She asked about symptoms, which he had none of, and she asked what his treatment situation is right now. I explained about our home health visit, which had been just a couple of hours before, and that he had gotten a new Port needle. She said we needed to go straight to the ER.

So, we packed up a quick overnight bag (in case of being admitted) and headed up to Primary's. When we got there, his temp was 101.8, so I knew I did the right thing. They took blood samples, hooked him up to IV fluids and antibiotics, and we settled in. They told us that if he was neutropenic with a fever, they were going to admit him, but if his ANC was above 500, they'd do the antibiotics and send him home. His ANC was 900, which was a pleasant surprise, since it had been cut in half pretty much every day this week. (3600 Friday, 1800 Monday, and 800 Tuesday)

So, they sent us home at about 2 am, with strict instructions to call the clinic today. If Matthew's fever comes back, I can give Tylenol until 24 hours after the antibiotics. After that, it's back up to the ER. So far, so good. No fever this morning. I hope the meds they gave him last night zapped whatever caused the fever. I called the clinic, and they'll have a nurse call me back sometime today.

Last night marked our fifth trip up to Primary's in 9 days. So, you see, we should get some sort of frequent shopper points.