Clinic Monday, November 14th and Another ER Visit

Last Sunday (the 13th) Jacob started running a low-grade fever—about 100 degrees, although it was very difficult to get an accurate reading with my thermometer. It would say 102.1 then 100.4 then 99.6 all in a row. I was so frustrated. Those numbers are the difference between “wait it out” and “get right into the ER do not pass go, do not collect $200” (if you know what I mean). Of course Scott and I called the clinic and talked the doctor on-call (being Sunday) and she said we probably ought to bring him in and have some blood drawn to see if there’s any bacteria. So off we went to Primary Children’s. We were planning to go up to the Salt Lake area anyway that night to have dinner with my family.

Scott took Jacob to the ER where they did blood tests and a chest X-ray. We're getting used to the ER routine, isn't that interesting? Two months ago I'd never taken any of my children to the ER and it totally terrified me. And sometimes it still does, but we've taken Jacob to five ER's on four occasions in the last six weeks and it's not so scary anymore (I guess I say that because this most recent visit really wasn't anything too serious).

Anyway, the ER doc's determined that Jacob had a cold. Just a virus, likely not a bacteria. After a few hours they let him go home. We spent the night at my parents house and went to clinic the next morning (we were already planning on spending the night in Bountiful, so, it worked).

Monday morning we were back in clinic with a very grumpy boy. It had been a long night. In the ER Jacob got a lot of fluids through IV and he had to get up and pee a lot. And because he was having a procedure and going under anesthesia he couldn’t eat anything. It was rough.

So Jacob had another lumbar puncture (“back poke”) to put a chemo called Methotrexate into his spinal fluid. We learned that Jacob will have 18 or 19 back pokes over the course of his 3+ years of treatment. I don’t know how many he’s already had, maybe five? I’m just guessing.

The good news is Jacob’s ANC is really high: 4,000 (or 4.0, it's stated both ways). That’s the highest it’s been since he started treatment. ANC is his ability to fight infections. And it’s a good thing, too, because I’ve had a bad cold this week (yuck!) Overall he is feeling good. Everyday he plays and reads and gets mad at his brother—just like normal! He is sleeping well at night and we are just happy that he is feeling as well as he is. He’s even been running around the house this week and we hadn't seen that for a while, so it’s so good to see and a good indication that he is feeling well.

(Just a note on my thermometer, by the way: I was ready to trash it, but then I read the instruction manual. Good idea, huh? I understand a little better how to get a more accurate reading. It’s an in-the-ear-thermometer and there is a handy little picture showing how the thermometer needs to be aimed right at the ear drum—I didn’t know that, just thought it had to get inside. Hopefully in the future it will be more reliable, we’ll see).