Yesterday was the day SD was originally scheduled to go in to clinic and start his monthly steroid pulse. On clinic days, some of the oncologists from Grand Rapids come up to Traverse City for us northerners. One of the visiting doctors (Dr. Cornelius) stopped by yesterday to visit and check on SD. How kind of him to drop by before his long drive home! He gave some recommendations on steroids; they're suspecting SD's cortisone is low, so they're starting him on Solu-Cortef (this is a totally different kind of steroid than his regular chemotherapy steroid, dexamethasone).
Since we've been here, the doctors have had a difficult time keeping SD's fever down. He's currently on the steroid, some broad-spectrum antibiotics, and tons and tons of fluids! We also have a fan and ice packs on him (seriously). He has been taking Tylenol almost constantly since we've been admitted - not for pain, just to keep his fever in a reasonable range.
However, he is in excellent spirits. He's enjoyed spending time with both of us, and is cheerful to the point of silliness! Most of the staff here is only treated with a shaking of the head or a verbal "no", but SD decided he liked one of the nurses last night and started chatting a lot with her. SD has also voluntarily taken naps several times, which is quite unusual for us: he just announces he's going to take a nap, lies down, and almost immediately falls asleep!
When he was first admitted, they were suspecting pneumonia (based on the chest X-rays). However, they're not sure what is causing his fever now. The blood cultures have all come back negative (which is a good thing), so they just changed his antibiotic to one that affects more diseases. We're pretty much just waiting for whatever it is to run its course. Right now it looks like the soonest we could go home is Monday.
One worrying thing is that SD's white blood cell counts have been dropping. They were 2.4 when we were admitted on Thursday, 1.3 Friday morning, and 0.9 just a few hours ago. So they're probably going to do Neupogen today. This is not a fun one because it can't go in through his existing IV; it has to be injected into his leg muscle in multiple shots while he's held down. Neupogen is very painful for him. :(
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