Day 55 of Lochlan’s healing journey with Leukaemia started super early. He got up to pee at 2:00 a.m. and I noticed he felt warm. So I took his temperature and sure enough he had a fever. I waited an hour and took it again, and it was even higher, so up we got, packed a bag, and headed to the hospital as per fever protocol when a child has leukaemia.
They did blood work and all the usual tests for viruses, along with a chest xray. And as per protocol they started him on IV antibiotics.
The tests came back positive for Covid. But they have to keep him on antibiotics and keep us in isolation until his blood cultures come back clear (usually takes 48 hours to get results). And because his immune system isn’t working appropriately his blood counts are low (they nearly went down by half since Friday) they consider him neutropenic. They’ll do bloodwork again in the morning and then decide if he needs any blood products. His hemoglobin was getting low despite the transfusion he had last week, so the doctor guessed he’ll need more. And his platelets are dropping so he may need some of those too. We shall see.
So we’re here for a few days, unfortunately. Thankfully we’re at our home hospital so Mitch isn’t far and he can do food runs for us— although neither Lochlan or I were feeling much like food today.
After a few doses of Tylenol his fever came down and has stayed down, thankfully— we won’t be able to leave if he still has fevers.
It’s been a long day. I’m exhausted and so is Lochlan. Trying to get an early bedtime in tonight to get as much sleep as we can despite the interruptions we will surely have with temperature checks, and new bag of antibiotics every 6 hours.
I found today extra hard because I’m sick too. Dealing with the same cold (so Covid), and then hormones that have led to a migraine that has not made me feel like I can be my best for Lochlan. I know Mitch and I could switch spots but I might as well be laying here with him, than laying at home. And the fact is Lochlan doesn’t get any breaks so I feel like I don’t deserve any breaks either. I promised we’d do this together every step of the way. I can’t cop out now. Sigh.
One step at a time.
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