Home From the Clinic

Yesterday was a rough day for Drew. He cried from 8:00 the prior night until yesterday at 3:00 pm. He was pretty much inconsolable. On top of it, they put him through a series of tests and checked his eyes to determine what was causing the pain. Nothing like making an unhappy kid even more mad. The cause of the screaming was an ear infection in his left ear. They gave him an antibiotic and some ear drops for pain.

After all the tests were complete Drew still needed his blood transfusion. His red counts were very low, so he was starting to get a yellow tint to his skin. The transfusion required the nurse to access his port, a painful process since we learned he is allergic to the numbing cream. He has a rash all over his chest from the numbing cream. He was not a happy camper during the blood transfusion. At one point we had to restrain him, because he was throwing his body all over the bed and pulling at the IV lines. They finally gave him so pain medication and that seemed to calm him done. They took his blood counts and his neutraphils (white blood cells that fight infection) are at 200, which is very very low. By today he will bottom out to zero. He is at very high risk for an infection right now. If there is any sign of fever he will be put in the hospital and they will run antibiotics until his counts start to come back up.

The good news is he got to come home. With pain medication he is semi-comfortable. He is tired, but happy. Hopefully we can keep him home.