Last night I joined Amy, Anthony, and Lynn for dinner after Amy's acupuncture appointment. Amy was feeling extremely tired so she curled up on the couch while Anthony and I went to get Thai noodle soup for dinner. When we got back, Amy was in bed and Lynn was sterilizing the thermometer.
After a reading of 100.7, Amy removed her heating paid and went to bed for a bit to see if it came down. The rule of chemo is that if the temp goes up to 101, you go to the ER. We were hoping we could wait it out and avoid the magic number. A little while later, though, it was up to 101.7. We waited 20 more minutes, but when it only came down to 101.3, we got ready to head to the hospital.
We made a really good team, I think. Anthony went to bring the car around, Lynn had the thermometer readings memorized and grabbed all the necessary items like phones and medical info, and I got Amy bundled up in her chosen scarf, hat, gloves, and fuzzy socks.
At the ER Amy sat down near a guy who smelled strong of (and offered some) McD's french fries while Lynn got her all checked in. They saw us within 5 minutes and got her suited up with a face mask and all. She'll have to wear one any time she goes to the ER, just to avoid contact with any super sick patients. Then it was back out to the waiting room for a bit. We made a few inappropriate SARS jokes as other patients noticed the face mask, but they pulled us into a private room pretty quickly.
The doctor came in to say he'd need to do a blood test, some cultures, and a urine test, and then we'd have to wait for an hour and a half or so to get results. The wonderful nurse, Holly, reached Amy's vein with no trouble and little pain, and left a catheter in so they wouldn't have to keep poking her. They took more blood than I've ever seen come out of a single person. Something like 4 big culture vials and 2 normal blood test tubes. Crazy amounts.
We entertained Amy as best we could while she waited for results. Rubber gloves can be fun when filled with air. :) We were definitely the party room, breaking the 1 visitor rule and making up stories about what was going on with the other patients who were making odd moans around the ward.
After she told them she was feeling about a 7 out of 10 on the pain scale for her back and muscle aches, they also gave her 2 percocet. The pain meds started to kick in, and Amy was so excited to feel relaxed and not hurting for the first time in a few days. Taking her blood pressure on her left arm where they did the chemo IV still hurt her quite a bit, though.
The doctor finally came in to give us results, but it wasn't happy news for Amy, who was not loving the uncomfortable hospital bed. They needed to admit her because her white blood cell count was too low. The doctor explained it this way:Amy should have about 12,000 white blood cells, and 40-70% of those should be neutrophils. Amy only had 700 white blood cells (NOT a typo), and 7% of those were neutrophils. That means she only had 49 neutrophils (compared to what she should have being in the range of 5,000-9,000).
Some good explanations online: chemocare.com, Mayo Clinic, Wikipedia
So she has to stay in the hospital until they get her cell counts back up, which will probably mean a couple of days. They are giving her antibiotics to fight any potential infections, and she's doing okay just resting right now. I'll make sure to post again when we have some more updates.
Oh no Amy! That sucks. I'm cheering for you though and am confident your white blood cells will start multiplying (or whatever they do to get more of them) soon. Hang in there.
ReplyDeleteAmy we are thinking about you! Rest, rest, rest lady!
ReplyDeleteHey Monika! Thanks for updating the blog. See if Amy can finagle a blood transfusion or two. They are the BEST. Its like getting new battery juice and you feel so much better. They usually only do that if her RBC drops below 8.0, but you never know. She will be like a new person :) Need to get the WBCs up regardless though, be hoping the shots work and her fever goes down! - Dana (HPA alum)
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