IC Day 6 Update

Well another day done in the hospital but unfortunately I don't know a bunch more. I know that Nathan's blood cultures still did not grow anything. I know that both his urine and stool samples didn't show any infections. And I know that he is still getting fevers but no one knows why, they cannot find a cause and I know that that is very frustrating and worrisome. I also know that Nathan's last blood work had all the cell counts come down: white blood cells were about 4.5; his platelets were still OK in the 200 range; and his hemoglobin was low at 67. In fact his hemoglobin was low enough today that he had a red blood cell transfusion to try to bring the levels up. I also know that his counts need to be good in order to continue on with the chemo therapy tomorrow and not get delayed. Hey, I guess I know quite a few things, just not the important ones that I want to know. I don't know when Nathan will be discharged from the hospital, I don't know what is causing his fevers, and I don't know if we will be able to continue with chemo treatments tomorrow due to his low hemoglobin count.

Shelley and I have been alternating nights at the hospital and it is Shelley's turn again tonight. I stayed Saturday night and, let me tell you, there are WAY better places to try to get some sleep. Between nurses coming in every couple of hours to make sure you don't fall asleep, the beeping machines and the other patients and their sounds, it is definitely not conducive to sleep! Nathan seems to sleep OK through it though, for instance, this morning the nurse came in at 5:30am to draw some blood and Nathan never even woke up (I did though). Nathan has pretty good days at the hospital, but as I said you can definitely tell when the fever is starting to come on as he gets grouchy, his head hurts and he doesn't want to move much. They have moved him from Tylenol to Ibuprofen and he does seem to respond to that better. And when he his better he is much better - he plays cards with us, we will walk down to the playroom, the DS gets some work, and right now we have the TV ordered in his room and all that does help pass the day. Occasionally Nathan will say that he wants to go home now but for the majority of the day he is just taking this in stride and that is really helpful for his parents. We've also had a few visitors, mostly family, and they've been awesome. His auntie Pam has brought up some crafts along with some co-crafters (cousins) which has been great for Nathan to interact with someone else, actuallly do something productive and do it with someone other than his mom and dad.

Tomorrow we go to the Cancer clinic from the hospital for an 8am appointment. They will do blood work to make sure that we can continue with treatment. Nathan is scheduled for another lumbar puncture as well as his ARAC drug tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to meet with Dr Ali tomorrow and discuss what is going on right now with Nathan and decide what we are going to do next and where we are going to be. Hey look, I hope to know more tomorrow!