Tuesday, October 10th

Well this has been quite a day so far. Alex felt very hot during the night but was resting so this morning I took his temperature and it was 102 degrees. When he woke up and moved to couch he said his head hurt and was crying due to a great deal of pain. Well that means I have to call Oncology. Of course they said "come on down"! I rechecked Alex's temperature and it was 101 in the left and 103 in the right. So I gave him some Tylenol and got everyone dressed and into the car.

Upon arrival, they applied some "magic cream" so they could access his mediport for a blood draw. The doctor looked at his ears and there is a bit of inflamation in the right ear but the left is fine. They gave Alex some antibiotics intravenously because they are concerned about his mediport line getting infected. His blood platelettes were low so they could not give IB for pain, instead Alex got two doses of morphine. This still did not control his pain so the doctor ordered a CT scan to check and see if Alex's brain was hemorrhaging. The CT scan came back okay but his blood work showed he does have an infection somewhere. We were sent home at this point. We will have to return tomorrow for more intravenous antibiotics then Alex will be put on orals.

Steve showed up while we were waiting. After the whole five hour ordeal was over he said to me "I don't know how you do this every day". I told him, "I don't do this everyday". But I understand what he means. No longer can an ear infection be a trip to the pediatrician and pharmacy. Now it means a trip to Oncology and Radiology and the fear of brain hemorrhaging! Oh how we long for the good, ole days!

Well, I need to pay some attention to the kids. Gotta go.

God bless,
G