3.6.08 edited

last night john's fever was about 100. this morning it was 103. they have taken him off the oral antibiotics and put him on IV antibiotics so it will work stronger and faster. the doc believes that the fever is not from infection but rather from the blood clot. they have increased his blood thinner. very dangerous. get a cut...bleed to death. so very very not good.

they did a chest x-ray to confirm that the blood clot has not gone to his lungs and also to confirm that he does not have any fluid in his lungs. all came back clear. yay. they did blood work to test for infection in the blood. those results are not back yet. boo.

as of this morning john has blood in his urine. the doc feels that this is less likely from an infection and more likely from a) john's decreased water intake since entering the hospital (john was drinking over a gallon a day at home but has not kept that up since being admitted), or b) from the stuff he had to drink in prep for the colonoscopy which can cause complications if you have kidney disease (which he has since childhood). the doc says he's not worried about it and that he expects it to clear up on its own almost immediately. we shall see.

the doc said that john's white blood cell count going down is what we wanted and that coming off the chemo for a bit of time and then returning to it is normal protocol (though it would have been nice to be informed of this beforehand. ya don't know what ya don't know so how can you possibly know what to ask? not that it's a huge deal. but when they said yesterday that his white blood cell count was down so he was being taken off the chemo for a while...well, we didn't really know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.)

being home with the kids every morning to get them off to school, and in turn missing doc rounds at the hospital, has been challenging. john is drugged and in pain and doesn't think to ask the questions i would, or get the answers as clearly. it's partly him just being sick and wanting the doc to go away and leave him alone, and partly the meds that make him foggy in the brain.

i guess just keep praying.
and hug the people you love.
k