ADI 43-46

What a week....

Tuesday was better than Monday but that doesn't say much for the week. It was the last day of classes for the kids so Nathan came with me to pass on a thank you gift to his teacher. It was nice for him to see her and the class one more time before summer. By the end of the day Nathan was complaining of a headache. He woke crying on Wednesday. Since having been sick on Monday, his appetite and intake of fluids went down. SO we didn't know if it was the chemotherapy drugs not being flushed through his system, lack of fluids, or the start of the virus Carter had last week.

To my dismay and disappointment, a nurse at the clinic informed me on Wednesday that a prescription for the anti-nausea drug, Ondansatron, had been sitting at pharmacy. I looked at the package to discover Nathan's doctor prescribed it on Friday, June 19th - a day we weren't even at the clinic. How it read was "to be administered half hour before receiving each dose of Cytarabine followed by a second dose 6-8 hours later". The reason the nurse was not given the liquid form of Ondansatron on Monday was because the pharmacy told her an oral prescription had been prepared for Nathan. She assumed he had received a dose that morning but didn't clarify with me. Needless to say I was astounded with the lack of communication from Dr Ali. Nathan didn't receive any anti-nausea drug last Tues, Wed or Thursday when he had received the Cytarabine, or Monday of this week. I gave him one Wednesday morning out of trying to help Nathan control his nausea. To have the prescription and instructions given to me on the second last day he was to receive this drug made me want to scream. I feel like Nathan has suffered unnecessarily this week do to poor communication from his doctor.

Nathan's blood pressure was low on Wednesday and his temp was 37.2. The nurses gave him a bag of IV to help hydrate him and it seemed to help his headache but his appetite was still off.

Thursday was a quiet day. Carter and Justin came with Nathan and I to the clinic as I knew our visit would be short. Nathan's blood pressure was normal. We spent the afternoon building Kinex motorized cars. Carter had a soccer game in the evening but Nathan wasn't feeling well again. So we had a quite night watching a movie together. He woke in the middle of the night wanting me to sleep with him. He felt slightly warm. When he woke in the morning he felt warm again so I took his temperature and it was 37.9. Since he had only gotten out of bed I waited half hour before retaking it and it was 38. I gave him Tylenol and prayed his temperature wouldn't get any higher. Thankfully the Tylenol kicked in and his temperature dropped. By supper though he was back up to 38 so he had another dose.

38.5 is the magic number that requires us to call the doctor and have him admitted to the hospital for observation and to test cultures, for viruses or infections. We are praying this is just a part of the virus Carter had last week and not an infection; that Nathan's body is able to fight it even with low counts and that his temperature returns to normal. It has been a worrisome week. Thankfully Nathan is done the hard part of this phase's treatment and hopefully the weekend will help him to recover before we start the leg needles on Monday. 2 more weeks until this phase is done.