Monday, January 31 - Maintenance Chemo Cycle 1, Day 15

Last week, Neya came down with a nasty respiratory virus that kept her home from school for two days. By Friday, Collin and I started with the same symptoms. I kept a close eye on Collin's temperature, and when it got to 100.8 Friday afternoon, I decided to call the oncologist's nurse to let her know. She said if Collin's temp reached 101 over the weekend, I was to call and bring him to the ER for blood cultures, just to make sure his mediport wasn't infected. All weekend I kept checking his temp; thankfully it never made it to 101.

This morning we had a previously scheduled clinic appointment. The oncologist checked Collin over, and blood was drawn to check his counts. The visit was smooth and uneventful. We got home and had lunch, but after lunch when I gave Collin his eyedrops, he felt very warm to me, so I took his temp again. Wouldn't you know it was 101.2! I called the clinic to let them know, and just as I suspected, they wanted us to come back so they could draw more blood for cultures. Since Collin's mediport had been accessed this morning for the first blood draw, we couldn't ignore the slim chance that he picked up some sort of infection when the port was accessed. So, back to the clinic we went; thankfully we live close! They took more blood for cultures, and gave him an IV dose of antibiotics. His blood counts are pretty good, so since he has a bit of an immune system, he didn't need to be admitted to the hospital.

Unfortunately, Collin is very congested and has a bad cough because of all the mucus. Sometimes he will have a coughing fit that will end up causing him to vomit. Of course he had one of these episodes in the car as we were leaving the clinic. I pulled over and ran around to his side of the car, but I wasn't quite fast enough to avoid a big mess. I am continuing to watch his temperature; this evening it went up to 101.9. I'm hoping it comes down soon and stays down. Depending on what the weather brings tomorrow, I'm hoping to avoid another trip to the clinic!

Our little friend Caiden, who is only a few months yonger than Collin, has successfully completed his stem cell transplants, and will be going home tomorrow! Please continue to keep him in your prayers; his parents face a very tough decision about the next step in his treatment. Please also continue to pray for our other little friend Sean, who is currently in the hospital for his stem cell transplants. And if it's not too much to ask, please add two more great kids and cancer warriors to your prayers, Hailey and Zach. They have also been through a lot. No child should ever have to go through what any of these kids have been through; cancer really sucks!