Superstitions Abound

In basketball, players wipe their fingers on the soles of their sneakers and take an extra bounce before making a foul shot. Michael Jordan used to wear his North Carolina shorts under his Bulls uniform. Teams in the playoffs sometimes resort to not shaving or refrain from washing/changing their socks in an effort to hang on to the good luck.

And then there's baseball, don't even get me started on baseball.

In chemo treatment, we have the "Overnight bag". If you pack it and take it, you will not have to be admitted to the hospital. Forget it, and you're toast! This has definitely been our experience. Today I was awakened by PCMC (hospital) calling to say that Ty's blood cultures from Sunday came back gram positive (bad) and could we come in as soon as possible? Also his hematocrit had gone lower and was border line for needing a transfusion.

I made arrangements for the kids to be cared for and deliberately packed an overnight bag this time. I knew that if I did, we'd get to come home - at least, I was counting on it.

Last time, I didn't do this. We stayed for 6 days, and did chemo - for a total of 11 days. I will always pack a bag. That is....until it fails me.

Tyler was very pale this morning and actually having some break-through nausea. Not even his favorite song would cheer him up. He kept signing "finished" when we tried to help him move his arms to the beat. I knew there was something wrong, I knew it back on Friday.

(a little speech therapy from Starla)

We have started Tyler back on the Vancomycin antibiotic, but we get to do it at home. His fever has not come back since about an hour after the first dose. We should have results of the specific bacteria/germ that is in his blood (Thursday) and what antibiotics it is sensitive to (Friday).

There is a chance that they may have to remove his central line/port. They drew blood from his arm and from his port - it is the blood from the port that came back positive for infection. Sometimes these bugs can colonize the plastic along the chemo line-not good. I hope it doesn't come to removal, because he tends to blow his IVs fairly quickly.

The labs today show that his hematocrit has increased to 29 and his ANC is still great at 5.0 (smack in the middle of normal). His is sleeping peacefully for the first time since last Friday, thank goodness for antibiotics.