Yesterday at about 4pm I noticed Olivers face was a bit flushed. I took his temp and it was 99.4.
He's been doing these up and downs of his cough for the last month and sometimes gets just a tiny bit elevated one night and thats that and everything is fine going forward. However last night his face and skin looked off as well. Could also be a combo of all the drugs this week too.
Then he drank some faux milkshake I made with chocolate but only finished half (normally he gobbles it down, and being on steroids its quick). Later I saw some chocolate on his shirt and he said he spit chocolate. I am not sure if he spit up, threw up a little or just spilled his drink some. I then brought out food to graze for dinner since he's been so wiped out he's been passing out on the couch early and we have a hard time waking him to take his meds before bed or keeping him awake. I wanted him to finish early so he could go to bed earlier. He would not touch any food after that at all. Dan was on his way home by this time from work. I kept taking his temp and it was slightly higher every 10/15 minutes.
Shortly after Dan got home we were getting 102 on his forehead and did an underarm getting a 101.7 reading. Dan calls the clinic after hours line (They want a call if its 101.5 or higher).
They get the oncall doctor and she says to take him to ER to get IV antibiotics and for them to do a blood culture. She also said that his fever is probably higher because the steroids can help keep a fever lower as well. He was clearly miserable by this point.
I took him over to ER where he moaned and groaned and whaled the whole time until he was just too tired (accept when they had to do anything of course). His forehead temp there was 101.2 -
They want a chest X-ray just because of the cough. He did very well despite the fact I had to stand behind the wall during the actual take because I am pregnant. They didn't see anything significant.
This doesn't really provide relief to me since this happened in August as well, and it wasn't until 4 days later he ended up with pneumonia despite getting the IV antibiotics just days before. However at that time he had started off as compromised as it was 2 weeks after his chemo/steroids during the 'dive' as I call it. This time we haven't even gotten there.
Later they came in and took his blood and hooked him up to some antibiotics via IV. Gave him Tylenol which took a lot of convincing to take. I could tell it either tasted bad or it was making him feel sick. After he finished it, 5 minutes went by and whatever he had in his stomach came right up and out.
They had to then give him another way (use your imagination), and no, its not via his IV.
His pulse was elevated and his pulse ox wasn't in the range that every one should have either, but not in any danger at that time (again, exactly what happened back in August, but I guess things could be different still?). We were let go, and home we went. He was very happy about that.
He did not want to put his PJ's on at home or go to bed even though he was so exhausted beyond belief and it was 10pm by this point. Finally he did want me to take him to bed. He woke up moaning just 30 minutes after so upon checking on him, found he had leaked through in his bed (happens the last days and a few after steroids). Changed him but he refused to wear PJ's and wanted pants and a shirt, which we put on him. He fell sleep again. Woke up again moaning, coughing, and now sweaty. His fever finally broke. He did this more times so we just put Miles in our bed since we had to keep going to check on him. Finally, Dan just slept on the floor in there. I think it was nearly 1am when he finally started to really sleep. He is awake now, but laying in bed drifting back asleep. He is at 99 this morning.
We call the clinic this morning when they open to get what time we need to bring him in for his 2nd dose of IV antibiotics. If I am not mistaken, they like to make 24 hours, but that won't happen since they close at 5:30 and there is no way they'd send us to ER again just for that. My guess is it'll be in the afternoon unless they want to see him earlier for good measure to check his vitals.
Any time they have taken blood cultures due to fever, they've always come back neg (not bacterial from the ones they check for) So I am just guessing that won't show us anything and its just one of those things.
Today is the last dose of his steroid, so we know he is going to dive with his numbers. Unless something happens this weekend, we will check first thing Monday morning so we know if he can go to school or not. Of course, he isn't going today, but if he has no fever the end of the weekend, but his counts are bad, then he can't be around other people/crowds, etc.
If anything out of the ordinary happens further, I'll update again. Otherwise look for an update Monday on counts.
