Another trip to the ER

Tuesday, March 2 -

After a long day of running around and playing at Sherry's House, Katie looked tired to me, so I suggested that she go lay down on the couch and take a rest at about 4:30pm. We were planning to eat dinner there and then stay for "story & craft" night. At 5:30pm, I kissed her forehead and she felt hot to me. I took her temperature and she was running a fever of 102.56....UGH...ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? The kid was FINE all day long!

Mike was meeting us at Sherry's House for dinner, so I called him to let him know that Katie had a fever and we would be leaving. He let me know that he was just around the corner and he was still going to come to the house and help me get Katie home. He was there about 5 minutes later. Katie was extremely upset that she wasn't going to be able to stay to play with the kids, but for her sake and the sake of the other children, there was NO way we could let her stay in that house for another minute. Mike took her home and I followed.

Once we were home, we re-took her temperature (now 6:30pm) and it was about 103. We called the doctor who told us to go to the ER. We packed our bags in case she was admitted and I gave her some Tylenol before we left the house.

7:30pm - Admitted to the ER, vitals and temperature was taken. Mike & I both laughed when they pulled out a "Tempadot" to take her temperature. This is a small, single-use, disposable thermometer that they use on the floor when Katie is admitted. This is also what we use at home and what we have been fighting for in the ER because the machine that they usually use NEVER registers a fever...so YEAH for them and YEAH for us!!! Her fever had come down some since being at home, she registered at 100.94.

8:00pm - Resident came in to examine Katie. She told us that she has met Katie before and that once she knew Katie was in the ER she HAD to come and check on her because she was "her favorite patient in the whole hospital". This made Katie smile a bit. I guess this resident has seen Katie up on the floor before and remembered her.

8:15pm - Port access (with the correct size needle. Another YEAH for the ER!) and her blood was drawn for cultures.

8:30pm - Attending doctor exam.

9:06pm - First antibiotic, Ciprofloxacin was started and took an hour. The coverage of this antibiotic was 12 hours.

9:30pm - Resident came in again because she had forgotten to check Katie's ears on the first exam. She needed to check before calling the oncologist 'on-call'...DUH!

10:10pm - Katie was switched from one room to another because another little kids (who was neutropenic) needed the ventilated room. There is a special room in the ER just for kids with immune suppression. This room has a high powered hepa-filter to help keep any extra germs out of the room and help to ensure that these kids to catch anything else while in the ER. Since Katie was not neutropenic, they opted to move her to a regular room in order to let this other child have the filtered room.

10:15pm - Second antibiotic, Vancomycin started and took an hour & 1/2. The coverage of this antibiotic was also 12 hours.

10:30pm - Re-took temperature and it was back up to 103.64. Tylenol was administered.

11:15pm - The resident informed us that because Katie was not neutropenic, she would not be admitted, but that she will need to take 2 oral antibiotics at home (Cleocin & Ciprofloxacin) and follow up with the clinic in the morning. We are not used to being sent home when Katie is running fevers, so I asked "why?" and the resident explained that because she is in maintenance and because her counts look good, her body should be able to fight off infection on it's own. This was good news to me. It is good to know that even though Katie is sick, she is still healthy enough to fight off infection on her own.

12am - Re-took temperature and it registered at 103.46 - it had really not come down at all with the Tylenol. They were just about to de-access her port and send her home when we asked about the temp not coming down and at what point do we call back? They suggested to give her some Motrin and rotate back and forth until the temp came down.

12:10am - Port de-access.

12:15am - Motrin administered.

12:20am - Hospital discharge.

We had to go to a 24 hour CVS to pick up some children's Motrin on the way home.

1am - Home, finally.

Wednesday, March 3 -

9am - Re-took temperature and it was 101.7. Administered Tylenol.

Mike went to CVS to fill the 2 antibiotic prescriptions and they cost us $53.07. One was $3.00 (pills) and the other was $50.00 (liquid). This is not the first time we have been charged a ridiculous amount of money for a liquid prescription...JUST CRAZY!

11:30am - Re-took temperature - 98.5 (normal)

12pm - She took both of the antibiotics prescribed.
Cleocin was an 8 hour dose.
Ciprofloxacin was a 12 hour dose.

12:30pm - Re-took temperature - 99.14, slightly elevated. Administered Tylenol.

6:20pm - Re-took temperature - 101.5. Administered Tylenol.

8:30pm - Second dose of Cleocin. Re-took temperature - 100.22, still too soon for another dose of Tylenol.

11:20pm - Re-took temperature - normal (97.7)

12am - Second dose of Ciprofloxacin.

1am - Re-took temperature - normal (98.24)

4:30am - Third dose of Cleocin. Re-took temperature - normal.

Fevers did not return.

Throughout this whole ordeal, Katie was not acting sick at all. She had a slight runny nose and some sneezing, but her energy level was fine and there was no indication that she was sick.

You might ask, "Why the detailed record of events?" Well, believe it or not, there have been numerous times when I have had to pull up my blog on my blackberry from the ER room to answer questions about previous ER visits and/or antibiotics used because they DO NOT have the records on hand. So, this is my best effort at keeping it all straight for the next time I have to answer questions that they SHOULD know the answers to. I should rename my blog to Katie's Medical Records...lol...

We are happily riding this sickness out at home.