Chemo and a Fever

This week we headed back to Salt Lake for another Lumbar Puncture and Chemo.  Austin's ANC was 2700.  He was feeling good.  The visit went smoothly. We learned more about Maintenance and what our schedule will be like.   Instead of chemo every 10 days it will be once a month and LP's every three months. We have been looking forward to having a less hectic routine and less trips to Salt Lake.  Dr. Wright also gave us Austin's last treatment date--November 2, 2015.  Seems like so far away!  I keep telling myself that the time will pass no matter what.  We will get there one way or another right?  

Accessing his port

Being checked out by Dr. Wright

Sleepy time--recovering after his lumber puncture

Love this crazy kid!

Too busy playing to notice he is getting Chemo

Getting Chemo

Chemotherapy

Passing the time

 We returned home safely and went back to the week.  Austin initially felt good and went to school on Thursday.  He called me at 12:00 and asked me to come get him because he felt nauseous.  He had a low grade temp of 99 and wasn't able to keep anything in his stomach.  By 6pm he still didn't want to eat or drink and his temp was 101.3.  In cancer world, that means a trip to the hospital.  Because Austin's port is a centrally placed IV, there is always a risk for infection.  When there is a fever we first have to rule out a port infection because that could be life threatening.  So I called the On-call Oncologist at Primary's to let them know that we were headed to the Peds floor and we got in the car.  

Fever 101.8  Not feeling good

Getting Rocephin

I feel yucky!

It was so hard to see Austin feeling so bad.  I hated to make him get his port accessed again because he was still bruised and sore from being accessed 2 days earlier.  I have never felt as helpless in my life as I have when Austin is suffering and I can't fix it.  He looks at me with his big beautiful eyes begging me to make it go away and it breaks my heart to not be able to do anything.  

Getting a bolus and sleeping, finally looks comfortable

So Austin's port was accessed, blood cultures and labs were drawn to see if there was an infection, a bolus of fluid was given for his dehydration, and IV antibiotics were started.   Fortunately, Austin's labs came back great.  His ANC was 3200 so we were sent home and told to return the next day if his fever came back.  The next day Austin's temp hovered around 99 but didn't get any higher so we were in the clear.  We probably won't know what caused the fever but I was very happy to see Austin start to feel better.