Sun, 28 May 2006

Camp Lucy
Camp Okizu we did not make. Instead, it's Camp Lucy. As in, Camp Lucille Packard Children's Hospital. Nate's counts on Thursday were low (ANC was 300) and his fever persisted, so admitted we were. It took a few tries to get an IV in. A couple different nurses, including Verna tried but failed. She's had good success in the past. They managed to get Beth from the PACU to come downstairs to clinic and try his IV. She got it in on her second try. So, he's got his IV in the crook of his left arm. It took a couple hours to get the IV in, long enough that Nate's oncologist ordered up his antibiotics to be injected into his thighs to get him started. Luckily they got the IV started at that point, or we would have had 3 shots to his thighs and still would have had to get an IV in.

We headed upstairs to 2N. We passed a large group of very sad people in the hallway outside the PICU. Christa later read the online website about a boy, Nicholas, we met earlier this year. He passed on Thursday. I'm sure it was all of his family and friends. I don't know what else to say.

Vicki came down and watched the kids on Friday so I could go to work. Christa stayed at LPCH with Nate. We've been swapping who sleeps there each night. Tonight will be my night. Luckily Nate has been feeling pretty well, even though his fever persists. We're now at 7 days straight of fevers. It hasn't gone much about 103, and he's had no fever some of the time, but it's not gone. Next labs will be tomorrow, but I doubt his counts will have recovered much. The good news so far is that his liver enzymes are coming down, moving back towards normal. They were high last Sunday.

I have to say Nate is quite the trooper. Getting the IV in sucked, but he's been very brave for all his other blood draws. He's had draws done Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Each time his fever would spike back up, they'd do another clean blood draw to start blood cultures looking for bacterial infection. All of that has been negative. The resident the other day said he had a crackling in his right lung and that the chest xray showed it wasn't fully inflated. Christa said that it sounded fine today according to the doctor. We've been tossing the football in the hallway quite a bit, and lots of walking around and heading to the playroom. Hopefully the activity has helped.

This afternoon, Nate's friend Jackson and his dad are visiting Nate. That's very nice of them. I'm sure it'll help break up the tedium of a day in the hospital.

I'll try and update again tomorrow night. Thanks for checking in with us.

- Greg
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