Hospitalized

Well it has been a hard week for poor Jordan. The chemo really started to hit him hard on tues/wed of last week. He is extremely lethargic and just lies in bed or on the couch all day. Sunday he took a turn for the worse and spiked a fever of 101.9 at 9:30pm. We had to take him to the ER since it was after hours. His blood pressure was really low at the ER so they monitored him for a while to decide if he needed ICU or not. Fortunately at 3am they determined that he was stable enough to be admitted to oncology and not ICU. The main concern is that he could develop a bacterial septicemia since he has basically no immune system right now (latest neutrophil count is 35). The protocol in this situation is to start blood cultures and keep them hospitalized and on I.V. antibiotics for at least 48hrs. So far the blood cultures have been negative (praise God!). If they are still negative tomorrow then they will send us home on antibiotics. He has not had a fever since sunday night and his blood pressure has stabilized. He still feels terrible though. It is so sad to see this normally exuberant boy just lie in bed too sick to move. This is a very common complication during this phase of treatment. In fact, all the nurses seem suprised that this is only our first hospitalization post-diagnosis. There is a lot to be thankful for. Whenever we are in-patient and I see the other kids I am struck by how lucky we are. I will let you know when we are home. Lara