Sick watch

If you saw the post from yesterday and watched the videos, you'd be amazed today that those videos were just from yesterday morning.

Anthony woke up yesterday with a runny nose. So much snot. He was a little lethargic, but still wanted to play.

By afternoon, he was just laying in different laps (that's where he goes for comfort). By late afternoon, his temp was climbing, and he vomited twice. His lips changed color just a tad bit.

The second time he vomited, I was in another room. The children said it looked like he couldn't breathe. I think he was gagging on phlegm. Poor baby.

Worried about oxygen saturation more than anything else, we headed to the ER to have him checked out.

Anthony's temp was still HIGH, but not a fever. So, we didn't need to do a blood draw...his oxygen saturation was excellent, and his lungs sounded clear. The doctor released us.

Just as the nurse came in with discharge papers, I checked Anthony's temperature one more time since he felt sooooo hot. It was a fever.

Instead of leaving, our favorite stat nurse, Josh, got to come in, access Anthony's port, and draw blood to check for infection. We knew the wait would be about an hour, so I asked if he could receive a bolus of fluids (a bunch of fluid in the IV in a short time). The doctor basically did whatever I asked, knowing we've been through all this before.

Anthony's counts were good, so we were allowed to go back home. If the cultures show anything positive in the next day or two, A will need treatment, but for now we're treating his illness like a common virus.

I'm just so nervous though, with how Anthony's body was attacked by viruses earlier this year. He developed pneumonia, and required a lengthy hospital stay in Seattle, PLUS a month of oxygen at night.

It's so frustating how one minute Anthony can seem fine, but then a bug gets ahold of his immune system, and he needs to visit the ER nearly immediately. It's a mixture of having small airways from the Down syndrome, a repaired heart defect (his heart is still more vulnerable than others), and leukemia. Blasted leukemia. I blame leukemia more than the other reasons.

Anyways, we are keeping Anthony comfortable today with Tylenol. He is allowed to have Tylenol only when he has had cultures drawn within 24 hours. Otherwise, Tylenol could "mask" a potentially-deadly infection by suppressing a fever. So this evening, we'll stop Tylenol again, and see how he does. If there's another fever, we go in for more cultures and start this all over again.

I really don't want Anthony to be sick for long. He can turn for the worse VERY quickly.
Plus, we are getting ready to visit Buzz and Woody in Florida SOON. This trip can always be rescheduled for reasons such as this, but I'd really rather Anthony be well, and he can go have fun.