Another fever

Carter woke up yesterday with a fever.  He wouldn't even get out of bed, he just cried and yelled for me until I came and got him.  He was feeling miserable.  I called the hospital to tell them we were coming in and they said to pack an overnight bag just in case since last week his ANC was only 600.  If it was below 500 now, he would be admitted.  I gave him some oxicodone for his headache and by the time we got to the hospital he was feeling much better.   His fever was gone, of course.  We got his counts and his ANC was 9200!  It could be because he just finished 5 days of steroids or it could be because his body is trying to fight off something or it could be a combination of the two.  So when the doctor checked him out, everything was fine and normal except his heart rate was too high.  That could be another sign of infection.  He put him on IV fluids for almost two hours as well as gave him an antibiotic.  His heart rate came down a little but still not normal.  They told me the dose of antibiotics would start wearing off at about 10:00 this morning so just watch him closely for another fever or any other signs of illness.  So far today he's been totally fine.  I hope he's over the worst of it.  I'm worried because his little brother has been pretty sick for about 5 days, fever on and off.  I hope Carter won't go through the same thing.

Clinic visit Jan 2012

 His hair is starting to get curly again!

Carter's clinic visit yesterday went great!  White blood cell count is 1400 and ANC is 600.  That's a little lower than they want it to be.  We'll keep the doses the same for another month and then see what is looks like then.  Hemoglobin is 10.5 and platelets 274,000. which are both really good.  He did awesome the whole time.  He was actually really excited to go to the hospital this time to play in the play room with his brother.  He didn't have a sedation and the chemo he got only takes about 10 minutes to infuse.  It was a good day.  Our prescriptions were even ready and waiting for us when we got to the pharmacy so we missed rush hour traffic coming home!  What a difference a year has made!

Dollar Tree Make-A-Wish meeting

 

 We were invited by the Make-A-Wish Foundation to attend a Dollar Tree meeting yesterday.  Every year, Dollar Tree raises enough money through several fundraisers to sponsor a wish.  They had us go and talk about what our family has been through and about our wish trip.  It was a really cool experience!  I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the generosity and kindness of these people.  We were sent on that trip only because of countless donations from people we've never met.  It was awesome to meet some people who worked so hard to make wishes come true for kids like Carter.  So there is now a plaque with Carter's name and picture hanging up in the Dollar Tree regional distribution center.  They had two big Spiderman cakes and two huge gift bags full of gifts for Carter.  It was really great and I'm so glad we had that opportunity. 

 

 Carter's gifts

 

 

Everyone LOVED Carter.  Of course.  While we were up there talking he was running in circles around us and holding our hands and swinging like a monkey.  He really put on a good show for them :)

'Tis the season to get fevers

Carter got another fever last week.  Remember the days when a child with a fever just meant give em some tylenol and put them to bed early?  2 more years (and a few months) and that will be our life again, but for now a fever means to the hospital we go.  He has a slight ear infection and is now on some antibiotics.  We picked up the prescription here in town instead of at the hospital and the pharmacist was so nice and concerned.  We've picked up a few of his chemo meds there before so they were on his record.  He was sure to tell me that amoxicillin can raise the levels of one of his other meds in his blood.  He called Carter's oncologist just to make sure that he was aware of that (of course he was but I was still impressed that he went to such lengths to care for my son). 

Hopefully we don't need to make any more trips down there until his next scheduled appointment.