Andrew has been having a rough go lately. Until a few hours ago, he has needed pain medication every hour and a half around the clock (it was the maximum dose they would give), but he would last until 10 minutes before his next dose. The only analgesic I had left was nursing, and that seemed to help a lot. Today we were able to stretch out his pain medications for 2 hours and all of the sudden, he stopped needing pain meds. I just waited and waited and although he was tired and groggy, he didn't seem to be in pain. He has been sleeping for most of the last two days (only getting up occasionally to eat), but he suddenly spiked a fever at 7pm. They've drawn cultures and started antibiotics and Tylenol every 6 hours (so that it wears off and they can see where his fever is). Unfortunately, the vancomycin gave him pretty uncomfortable Redman's, which Benadryl helped alleviate. That was probably the worst part of today--seeing him purple. Everything else I have dealt with before, but it was just so dramatic and uncomfortable, it made me a bit scared.
Actually, that was the second worst part of today. The worst part was learning that Tanner's cancer is alive and well, meaning his transplant won't happen as planned. Please include Tanner in your prayers.
Believe it or not, we're actually doing quite well. Although it's obvious now that Andrew has an infection of some sort, I'm feeling peaceful and even happy. I know I've had help from the other side. The exhaustion that I've experienced these last few days has been hard, but I've been able to get up and take care of him during the night. We've had a lot of visitors lately that have cheered us up immensely. As always, thanks so much for your support!
Lizzie, thank you for the update. I am so sorry about his fevers and possible new infection. You are so close to the end of these 5 rounds! I hope it comes quickly. Andrew is remarkably enduring all of this so well. Erin suffered from Redman's from the start, so we always had to pre-med her and give her the vanco dose over a 2 hour period. Every round we had to tell the nurses this, it always seemed odd to me that it wasn't in her reports from round to round. I hope this last stretch goes quickly and soon enough Andrew will be outside running in the sunshine and growing hair.
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