Day -2 completed with speedbump

Kevin had a good morning and from what I hear from Mike a good afternoon and evening as well. I came in around 8 p.m. tonight and Kevin did seem tired, which of course is no surprise. He started to toss and turn in his sleep and moan a little. The nurse came in for her normal rounds and discovered he has a 100 degree temp. She uncovered him a bit and came back an hour later, only to find it was a little over 101 degrees. She paged the doctor who came in within 10 minutes. She sent down orders for Vancomucin, which I'm told is a broad reaching antibiotic. The doctor also ordered blood cultures. All in all she didn't seem overly alarmed. The nurse did say it's probably an infection and more then likely it's in his line. This was an unoffical comment, but was information at least. She said if it's in the line it's not too big of a deal as the antibiotic goes directly to the source. He'll get the antibiotic every 8 hours until futher notice. They also gave him some tylenol to break the fever. It's not super high, but I guess I'm a little surprised as his ANC counts are still quite high, meaning his ummune system isn't wide open like it will be when they reach zero. I think that's why the nurse commented about it being in his line. It's being used all the time, and it's a common source of infection even when counts are up. He's seemed to stop stirring. Luckily tomorrow is considered a rest day on his protocol---day -1. which leads up to his stem cell infusion on day 0 on Tuesday. In a perfect situation he'd leave the hospital on Wednesday, but we already knew he was getting TPN, which is a supplemental nourishment line. They start that on day 0 and need to take 2 or 3 days to make sure his body and organs are metabolizing everything okay without unnecessary damage. Kevin and I have now been here almost 2 weeks, as we arrived on Tuesday the 12th. If everything goes well hopefully Kevin will be out of the hospital by Saturday. His attitude after day 1 has been good. He really does know what's going on, and has been incredibly brave. I've never been more proud of him.

Take care,

Eric