Saturday, August 29, 2009

August 29

The last round of chemo got the better of Luke. Started off with a headache early in the week that continued to get worse. Thursday evening he started to experience chills and was running a slight fever. With the fever we were told to bring to the ER. We arrived just after midnight Friday morning.

ER was a zoo. All the rooms were occupied and there was an equal number of patients in the halls on gurneys and in the waitng area. Luke got into a room around 3 am. He was put on antibiotics for the fever and meds for the headache. Headache did not improve and he had a bout of nausea after eating a little bit for breakfast.

Finally got into hospital room around 2 pm Friday and said goodbye to the ER. Docs were was able to keep his fever and nausea under control but the headache persisted until Saturday morning. Finally a combination of caffeine and hydrocodone worked on the head. Also probably helping out was having the nausea under control and being able to eat.

Luke's white count is still zippo and hemoglobin is still low.* Today Doc decided to give him two more units of red cells. With having a fever the lab is doing cultures to see if his blood grows anythings. It takes at least 48 hours for any bugs to show up so Luke will be in MDA until at least Sunday.

Progress is good. Headache issues have subsided, he's able to eat and has walked around the halls. He is getting his first unit of blood as this is being written. The blood comes with a complimentary dose of benadryl so he will be out for the next 4-5 hours. Luke was ecstatic about being photographed getting his first unit of blood.
* Today's trivia question is "What is the normal range of red cells?"

1 comment:

  1. Doesn't that have something to do with Luke-o-cytes? Not sure.

    Honey, I was happy to talk with you this evening, albeit brief. As I said, mind everyone so you can go home tomorrow, okay?

    Love you and watching you as if I were present.

    Love you mucho
    Aunt Jacquita

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