Defenseless

When you have no white blood cells simple things are dangerous. I never thought a fever could be as scary as Henry's was yesterday. They told us to expect it, I guess I just didn't think it would be so soon. He had fits of discomfort all morning and by 1pm was running a fever of 100.3 F.

He was a trooper and put on the mask with no problems. We went to the Washington County Hospital Emergency Room where they drew blood and, after consulting with our doctors at Hopkins, they started him on two broad spectrum antibiotics to try to kill the infection. They gave him a chest x-ray for pneumonia and dipped his urine. They began culturing his blood but that takes days to grow. We sat in the hospital for about 7 hours through this and were finally taken by ambulance to Hopkins. Tara took over for me to get him down there and she and Henry didn't get into a room until around 3am. Long day and short night.

He is currently being monitored and treated for constipation. He's to get a blood transfusion today to help his red blood cells recover. He was also already scheduled to get his last dose of Vincristine for this first cycle of chemotherapy. They will not let Henry leave the hospital now until his counts return to a certain level. This is entirely dependent upon him as an individual. Some recover quickly and others take longer. It may be a week before he is able to return home; then it will be for a few days and we'll have to go back for his second cycle.

Tara told me this morning that Henry has handled the adversity fairly well. He is more comfortable than he's been as they're giving him fluids; he hasn't been drinking much. I'm going down today with Tara's step-father to relieve her and so she'll have a safe ride home. Our plan is for her to come back on Saturday and do the same for me.