Hospital: Day #6

10/26 830am (from Matt)

Mollie had a very difficult night last night. Her fever ran all the way up to 39.4 C just after midnight, and it took three doses of tylenol, at 1230, 3 and 430 am to turn it back down to 37.9 C, as of 6am. At 8am it was still down, to 37.4 C. This is the only small bit of good news at this point.

Dr V (the new attending) came by earlier and Mollie's counts are slightly down from yesterday. She still has very low white counts, no measurable ANC, and is neutropenic. Several versions of plan B are under consideration right now.

They may begin treating Mollie for a fungal infection. We have been told that this involves some significant side effects, but have not gotten into specifics although Sarah researched it and has a good idea. Mollie may get neupogen shots to boost her white cell count - she has had these before and responded well (aside from loathing the shot itself). She may get a CT scan to further evaluate her sinuses and clarify the possibility of whether this is a sinusitis of some sort. She may be tested for the flu, although this would require that she be moved outside the forced airflow isolation ward and therefore isnt likely due to her neutropenic condition. She may receive an IgG infusion as we mentioned before. She may receive a blood transfusion to boost her red cell count. They may for now simply continue status quo (clindamycin and cefepime antibiotics), in the hopes that whatever this is resolves that way. We will know soon enough what seems to be the best course to follow and get busy following it.

For her part, Mollie is fighting a courageous battle against something that is nasty as can be. Whatever this infection is has withstood 6 days and counting of powerful antibiotics. Mollie understands very well what is going on and is willing to do whatever is asked of her. She takes medicine without protest, allows the doctors and nurses to examine her, take her blood pressure and temp etc, and her only complaint has been that she is bored (surprise). We are confident that despite the lack of positive news today that Mollie has the will and determination to beat whatever is attacking her and get the heck out of here. It just may take some time.

Update @ 10 am (Sarah)

Mollie is in good spirits this morning. She is painting wooden figurines from Michelle and wearing a locket with a photo of Lucy in it. We are hoping they will let us bring Lucy in here for a visit- it would be nice to have our whole family in the same room for a few minutes! Mollie's diet has been pretty good- this morning she ate pancakes, 2 cups of OJ, cereal with milk, and half a bagel with cream cheese! She's not having any symptoms other than the fevers and cough.

The plan, according to Dr. V is to give the neupogen (GCSF) shots, starting today, to help get those counts up. He has reassured us that it is not unusual for children run unexplained high fevers when their counts stay low. The cultures (bacterial and fungal) continue to be negative and he thinks the cough is due to post-nasal drip. So, it's more of the watchful waiting.

Matt and I are both scared and I think last night was a very low point for both of us. We are very thankful to Michelle and Marv for helping out so much with Lucy and we're glad that Matt's dad is coming sometime today to help out. Mollie beat both of us at a game of Trouble before bed so we're looking for a rematch sometime today!

Meant to post photos of the haunted house, but I forgot my camera!

2 PM (Sarah)

Fever spiked this morning around 10:30- she's still febrile and Tylenol is not helping much. She took her neupogen shot like a pro though. Dr. V says that once the ANC gets up around 400-500 that we should see a dramatic improvement. Despite the fever, we have been doing lots of painting and she beat me at Crazy 8s and Go Fish.