Last night was one of our hardest so far. Caemon had to go in yesterday for a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) as well as a dose of chemo in his spinal fluid, and an extra PICC line on his other arm. This was his second day in a row under general anesthesia and also his second day of getting Benadryl and platelets and generally being out of sorts.
After his surgery, Caemon came around for a little while, but by evening, as he was being hooked up to all of his new chemotherapy regimen, he began to take a down-turn. Later in the evening, he spiked a fairly scary fever (104 F) and continued to be feverish much of the night. His breathing was challenged, and he overall had a very difficult night with many interruptions including his nurse taking cultures of his PICC lines, respiratory therapists coming in to give him breathing treatments, nurses coming in to take vitals, doctors coming in to hear his breathing, and so on. Neither Jodi nor I slept much at all, and we had to send Grandma over to the family long-term stay house by herself. It was a rough night for everyone.
Today, Caemon is catching up on sleep, and his breathing is improved. We have new doctors on duty today, so we’re having to catch them up on his history and his leanings toward upper airway obstructions (one thing this leukemia seems to have done is to enlarge his tonsils and adenoids). So far, they are listening and have called off the unnecessary breathing treatments.
The fever, they initially thought, was a side effect of one of the chemotherapy drugs, but it seems to be rising again today, and it’s not consistent with the timing of the drug, so they think he has an infection. This is not what we need. Fortunately, they’re staying on top of things, administering antibiotics, and working on bringing our boy out of this slump. It’s really rough right now. I find myself thinking many times a day that I wish I could do this for him.
C is for Crocodile 