Down, Up, Down

Ally's fever must have broken sometime in the night. She finally settled into a good sleep about 1am, and then slept all night. When she woke up, we took her temp. We were thrilled to see no fever! I actually took it several times because I thought it must be a mistake. We got a call from the clinic that they would like to see her back down there today. She was due to get another course of IV antiobiotics.

When we got to the hospital, we saw Dr French. He informed us that the blood cultures that they took Sunday when she was in the ER did grow something. This means that she has some sort of bacterial infection in her body and it was present in her blood. They had done these blood cultures three or four times before and she was always fine, so I was not happy to hear this. He said the type of infection they found can be serious, but that hopefully antibiotics would take it away. It was interesting to me to hear that they take her exact blood specimen in the lab and try different antibiotics on it to see what works. That way they don't have to give her a broad spectrum antibiotic that kills good and bad bacteria, but they can hone in on exactly what this particular infection needs. The fact that he used the word "serious" when describing the infection upset me. He even mentioned the possibility that she has developed an infection in her port and then it would have to be surgically removed and reinstalled elsewhere. I DO NOT want to do that. I had talked to two or three families that had this happen. I am hoping that is not the case. Again, I started wishing we just had a "normal" case of ALL, not high risk. I wish we could follow the "normal" treatment protocol, but we cannot. Allison is becoming known in the clinic for all of the bumps in the road that she is experiencing. I hate it.

So, she is going to remain "accessed" for the next ten days. That means she has the tubing coming out of her chest. (no swimming) Home health care will be stopping by our house daily to give her the antibiotic. I guess we will know if there is a problem if the fever keeps cropping up. She seemed pretty good today, except for a headache from her chemo, so I am hoping that the antibiotic is doing its thing.

So it has been a roller coaster ride here lately. Jerad and I felt down last night. She felt so bad, still had the fever and we were worried. Then, this morning, she was happy! Playing baby dolls with her sister, talking, etc. So Jerad and I felt really good again. Then we hear what the doctor tells us about the infection, and we feel down again. All in the matter of a day. We are seriously just flying by the seat of our pants. We could be good, and then later in the day bad. We just don't know. We continue to roll with the punches and hope for the best.