Day 22

Monday evening Piper began to run a fever. This is not uncommon when she is neutropenic and is actually the reason she is kept in the hospital until count recovery. Literally in the course of an hour she went from normal to 39.4 (103 degrees) and shaking and chills.

The problem is that Monday was the day Pipers port was supposed to be reaccessed, they do this weekly to keep infection at bay. So the nurse had agreed to deaccess Piper that morning so she could have the day free and hopefully get a bath before re accessing her later that night for fluids. Unfortunately we didn't know that Pipers platelet count was lower than they normally transfuse at and the last time Piper was reaccessed with low platelets she bled out for over 3 hours while they rushed platelets. It was horrifically scary.

The bigger problem was that with a fever she can easily become septic with no counts to fight off infections or viruses. And they cannot give Tylenol or antibiotics to combat a fever until after they have a true blood culture to run. And they cannot receive blood without re accessing her port which would almost definitely bleed out.

Oh, and there were no platelets available in the state of Georgia for her A- type.

And they had no idea when platelets would be available.

I tried not to freak out.

(not very well, but I get points for trying)

And then just as (favorite) Nurse Jaime began to clean Piper up to be accessed to get cultures, (favorite) Nurse Alyssa popped her head in the door and said some had just been flown in from Charlotte NC.

Just for Piper.

So she was accessed...she bled a bit...they rushed the platelets...and all was well.

(And mommy kicked herself for not keeping small bottles of wine in the room)



Since then her cultures came back for, wait for it, "gram positive cocci in chains". Yep, that's what they told me. Apparently that probably means something in the strep or staph family which sounds scary but her cultures from the very next day were already clear so whatever is causing the fever is at least responding to the antibiotics.

Piper is still having fevers but she bounces back quickly after given Tylenol and she is nearly her normal busy, bossy, sweet self. She will continue to be on the IV antibiotics for about a week which is no biggie since we are snuggled in nice and cozy at the hospital anyways.

Well, Chad is at least. I'm barefoot on the couch at home with Linley.

I'm pretty sure he's cozy though since he loves the ugly socks they pass out there.

Odd man.

So keep praying that she is able to continue to fight this off, that nothing else rears its ugly head, that her counts recover quickly, and Oh yeah, that she beats Leukemia.

For the second time.

Jeez, she is such a complicated little sweetie and I don't mind a bit.