So sorry for your stress, Lori - fevers are unfortunately not uncommon at this point in the treatment. The good news is, they seem to go away pretty abruptly, too, and our experience has been that there often isn't anything very significant going on to explain them. You did the right thing by going in to the ER. I hope it will resolve very quickly and that you'll be home before you know it! Thinking of you.

Best to you and Keir,

Robin

So sorry you had to make the ER trip. The fear of fevers and the ER worry me. I agree with Robin, going was the right decision. I'm praying for no infection or admission and that you can go to your scheduled appiontment.

Kier is so blessed to have you as the amazing Mother you are.

Prayers of peace and healing for you and Kier

Julie

Lori,

Do not worry about Keir's fever. Everyone gets them when their counts are borderline or low. I had a fever to 100.8 on my birthday last year (my real one), and I went out to dinner with my wife and daughter anyway. Keir's temperature is technically below what is considered a low-grade temperature (100.5). My guess is that they will not admit him if his temperature remains at that level or goes down. If he needs antibiotics, he will get them. Otherwise, they may just have you watch his temperature, look for other symptoms, and await the blood cultures that they might well draw. DON'T worry. Fevers are par for the course, rather than exceptions to the rule!

Cliff

Thank you all. Keir did get admitted and is being given IV antibiotics every eight hours (not sure for how long as the doc has not shown up to see us yet). So far, no source of infection has been identified. He was due for a clinic visit today and from what the nurse said, sounds like he will need a unit of blood and one of platelets. This is day 13 after chemo (consolidation). His temp this a.m. was 99.5 so I do hope it comes down. We're just kind of discouraged to be back here unexpectedly. He'd been doing and feeling so very well. He still is, (tired now that he's lost a night's sleep) so hopefully this will be a very short stay. I'm having a heck of a time organizing his dental work. He may need an extraction among a few other things and timing it after the counts come up but before he needs more induction is like threading a moving needle. I'm hoping the sensitive tooth he mentioned isn't the source of an infection.

So sorry Kier had to be admitted. Transfusions of red and platelets is very normal at day 13 for consolidation. Heck, I start needing transfusions on day ten through 35-they think I double nadir.

Fevers are strange. SInce diagnosis in March, I have yet to have a temp above 99.2. I worry that my immune system is not working but I haven't been ill either. As you can tell, I'm one that worries that I don't worry enough :-)

Prayers for a VERY short stay and all negative cultures.

Julie

Vince had fevers 4 out of the 5 rounds of chemo. Only once did his blood come back positive for an infection. With each fever he had his "pass" revoked and was put back in his room and given antibiotics by IV for several days as a precaution. I think it is very common. Hopefully he'll be feeling better soon. Vince was also inpatient for the entire 5 months (he kept his same hospital room and everything) we were just given passes to go to the Fisher house (where we also had a room) when his counts were good. Is this not a common thing with others-did anyone get to officially check out during their treatment????

You did the right thing Lori and it is very normal. Day 13 everything should be bottomed out and you have done well to get to day 13.

He will start to learn more about his body and to know what is right and wrong.

You did the right thing, and being back in hospital is not a bad thing :)

Julie

I was only in the hospital for 26 day for induction, then sent home for ten days. Came back to the hospital for consolidation #1 for five nights (sounds so much better than six days). Sent home for a total of 65 days (remember my counts take forever to come back). I came into the out patient clinic on day 10 through day 35 for tranfusions if needed (usually every three to four days. I gave myself the neupogen shot at home. Consolidations two and three went exactly the same. I have a triage line that is covered 24/7 for guidance as to whether to come in or not based on symptoms. My med team allows anyone the "option" to nadir at home if they live within 30 miles of the hospital-Thank the good Lord, I do.

Julie

Julie,
We would have definitely preferred doing it your way. The hospital was germ central and the Fisher House wasn't much better because of communal living. I think the safest place is at home to nadir. Our home was 4000 miles away so that wouldn't have worked for us.

Lori,
How is Keir today???? Vince also had really bad headaches with the fevers. The good news is as the blood counts go up those yucky symptoms go away.
:) Julie

Lori....

Be calm. It is ok. You did the BEST THING POSSIBLE. Fevers will happen. Random admissions will happen. THey just do. I am sure they will keep him admitted and on antibiotics until they can rule everything out or find the source. This is all normal.

THE DANGER was if you didn't go in and he had some infection that got out of control. You should always at 100.4 go to the ER. You are getting the hang of it and you will make it through. Give yourself a pat on the back. You and Keir are safe and made the right decisions.

xo
Ed

Keir's temp is okay. He had one loose bowel movement so now they are waiting to see if that gets worse. Otherwise he can go home tomorrow.

I appreciate, greatly, all the support. I'm sure it's obvious I've been having a lot of trouble finding my footing with all this. I am very grateful to all of you for the encouragement and your patience.

We are on a different floor in a different section of the hospital. This is the "new" part of Rush University Medical Center. The hematology/bone marrow section had to be moved out of here because there were problems with the filtration system that are being fixed. As tiny and crowded as the other "old" section was, I found it much more encouraging. This section reminds me of a well appointed nursing home for the bedbound. No one walks in the halls, the nurses seem to spend as little time in your room as possible and don't chat; same with the techs and so forth. The rooms are recessed back from the hall - for privacy, I guess. I have not set eyes on a single patient or visitor. It is somehow even more isolating, and this unexpected hospital stay kind of threw us. However, Keir is okay and his numbers are improving. Yesterday he had 10 neutrophils and today there are 90. I don't really understand these numbers yet but that was, his nurse practioner said, a good increase.

The bone marrow co-ordinator is waiting for results back on 2 unrelated donor blood samples (I hope I got that right) and should know more by the end of the week.

sounds like his bone marrow has kicked back in and his blood counts are starting to rise which is great.

Our hospital in Australia, after chemo when the numbers dropped to zero and then the wait for them to increase, they would say that you would be in hospital until the neutrophils are back up to 1 (which is 100 for you Lori). Once the neutrophils are at 1 you would be discharged and sent home to recover and regain strength for the next round :)

He must be responding well to the chemo and his bone marrow working really well for the counts to be back up so early in the treatment round.

Keep up the good work and keeping him out of infection and doing well

xxx

Keir's fever spiked suddenly - 101.3 - so he won't be discharged tomorrow. They haven't been able to find any infections yet and just took him off the IV antibiotics.

Lori:

If it was going to go back up then it is good it did it while you were in the hospital. I do not think they will need to keep in in the ICU -- probably just assign him to a room until the fever comes back down. The fever could be related to the loose bowel and that is something that they will check on fairly easily. My med folks always require three days of samples, for some reason, which was an inconvenience, so they might keep him until the bowel thing gets cleared up. Again, this is nothing to get alarmed about -- it is quite normal and I do not know any of the patients here who have not been through it. I am proud of everyone for everyone for helping you -- I just got to the airport at MN and got on. It was not as cold as I thought but very light rain at this point. Please stay positive -- this was expected and sort of a warning how important it is to be safe about human contact. Not that you did anything to cause this -- we were as safe as we could be and I still have three or four different bouts with infections. I am praying for you and Keir -- dave