Fever

So disappointing, we are so close to Liam's counts coming up. Since Liam is neutropenic, he has no ability to fight infection, they start him on antibiotics immediately. They do blood cultures and try to find a specific cause for the fever, only one time has anything come up on the cultures.

Until the cultures come back, and his fever is down, we will not be going home.

Let's just hope this fever is not as persistent as the last.

Fever returned

Well, Liam was off antibiotics for 24 hours and his fever returned. Nothing is testing positive, so they just don't know why he keeps getting the fever.

As a result, chemo hasn't started again.

We will see what the doctors have to say tomorrow.

Finally less (no?) fever

Liam has almost made it a whole day without a fever, finally! They switched the type of antibiotics, but it's hard to say whether that was it, or it was just time for this *whatever it was* to go.

I'm sure it's not a coincidence, Liam played a little bit more today.

Not much else to report. If Liam goes without a fever for 48 hours, they may start his chemo on the weekend, or they might just wait until Monday (it seems to depend which doctor we speak to on that).

With some luck, maybe Liam can even leave the room, he's been on isolation this whole week, to protect the other kids on the unit. We admitted Sunday night, it's a long time for him to not leave the room at all.

Fever Persists

Liam went the whole afternoon yesterday without a fever, but it returned late afternoon and through the night.

First thing this morning he did not have a fever, but has a fever again now. Hopefully this means there is a progression to NO fever. No fever soon would be good.

Although, the way Liam was playing this morning, he was happy and looks really good, you really wouldn't have known he has a fever. Liam was very happy to have a visit from sister and Grandma this morning!

Still Has a Fever

Liam still has a fever, it's so frustrating to not know what is causing it. The doctors are pretty sure it's something viral, and he just happens to not have any symptoms that we can see. They have done blood, pee and poo cultures, almost every day, but so far the ones that have come back are negative.

Yesterday, we had a few "checks", including a venography. They injected Liam with dye and did a CT scan, to make sure there was nothing going on with Liam's veins. This looked good, no concerns.

The original plan was to start chemo today, so that won't happen now. Liam has to be fever free for 24 hours before they'll give the high dose chemo.

We aren't going to be discharged, so we now just wait for this fever to end.

On a side note, we are in a room at the end of the wing right now, and there are extra big windows, with a beautiful view of the mountains and the trees changing colours. The room is slightly bigger, there is a table and chair which makes things a bit more easy for myself. Not that we can complain, all the rooms in Unit 1 are large and bright, they are set up very well.

Fever

Liam had a tough night last night with more vomiting. They tried giving him Ativan, that wasn't fun and did not prevent more vomiting. Liam also likes to prove doctors wrong, instead of getting tired and sleeping with Ativan, he was up and feisty until after 1am. Then he was up and sick again until 4am. (Gravol doesn't make him sleep either)

As a result of being up half the night, he's slept a lot of the day. Although, he's had a lot of doctor visits, they wanted to rule out a few things before the weekend, so Liam had a very quick MRI scan to make sure fluid obstruction wasn't the reason for the vomiting. He did the MRI without anesthetic, despite the loud machine, he kept very still.

Then late this afternoon, Liam spiked a fever. While he's neutropenic (he has no white blood cells), he's unable to fight infection, so as soon as he gets a fever, they have to give him antibiotics right away to protect him. Liam has gotten a fever 2 out of 3 times when he was neutropenic before.

Week Interrupted

We were having a fun week, then damn you Mr Fever for visiting us this afternoon.

This is the same scenario we had previously. If Liam gets a fever while he's neutropenic, he has to be admitted to the hospital get IV antibiotics. He has no immune system this week, and we don't know what his body is fighting with the fever, but his body can't fight it at the moment.

We'll be in the hospital for a minimum of 48 hours. It'd be optimistic to think we'll get out Friday, but you never know.

There is always a bright side: a) Liam didn't get a fever during cycle 2, we are lucky it's been this long! With all 3 cycles of chemo, we've gotten out of the hospital on schedule b) It's air conditioned at the hospital, we don't have a/c at home, so it's hot in our house right now

Woke with a fever

Liam woke up with a fever this morning, so off we went to the Children's Hospital. Liam got checked out by the doctor, he's still in a good mood, although he was extra cuddly this morning, our first sign something was wrong.

They treat fevers seriously when he doesn't have white blood cells, once Liam has a fever, they treat with antibiotics right away for at least 48 hours, so we'll be in the hospital for the weekend.