Bacon Bits

Just a warning - this is a long post. Probably confusing at times, good luck!

Saturday afternoon Kael started fevering and complaining of his legs hurting. Throughout the evening his temp kept getting increasingly higher but we were able to keep it under control by giving him Motrin. His fever finally broke just after we put him to bed so when I went and checked on him he was drenched in sweat. Gross. Sunday came, it was the Primary Program and I was looking forward to him doing his part. He had it all memorized and was ready to go but I knew he couldn't go. So sad for me. (Matti and Trey did well though.) Anyway, we fought a fever all day Sunday and Monday morning I called clinic to see what they wanted me to do. Of course all the dr's and nurses are in their morning meeting but because he had a fever i was told "Bring him down right away, keep a mask on him, we will room him as soon as you get here". So two hours later we walk into clinic. Everything is going well. His fever was gone because of the tylenol I had given him before we left the house and he was acting great - which he always does while in clinic. The nurse comes in and draws blood, sends cultures off to see what they will grow, ect., ect. Then the PA comes in to examine him. He immediately jumps my case for not calling/coming down as soon as he started with the fever (so I immediately take offense). My reasoning for not calling was fear of recieving this answer, "Give him some tylenol and if he still has a fever on Monday, call us" or my justification that he is on his 'maintenance' doses' and I am sure clinic is packed with other sick kids, higher on the list than we are. Anyhow, the PA continues with the exam and he just can't believe how good he looks and is acting. "It is just a virus" he says but lets see what his counts are and we will decide from there. So we wait for counts to come back and they are awesome!!! His ANC is 3.0 (they don't want leukemia patients to be that high but since he has had a problem in the past with meds and his counts, they are leaving them be.) They take his temp and he is fevering again so they give him more Tylenol. At this point I am told not to give him Motrin because it lowers his platelets (so much to remember!!). The PA prescribes him some Rocephin (antibiotic) that has to be given there in clinic. So after that is administered we are free to go. His temp is taken again and it is higher than before the Tylenol. "If he gets any worse, get him to the ER or get back down here". I calmly tell the PA that we have had terrible luck in the Logan ER and that they (Logan) will not call Primary's as instructed. He doesn't have an answer and really gives me no hope in his ability to do anything. I am quite upset as I leave the clinic and am wondering why I never got to see a DR. So on my drive home I start asking myself all sorts of questions like "how will I know if he needs to go back in?", "how many days do I give this "virus" before I call or go back in?" and then I think back to when the PA was given me the old "why didn't you bring him in" lecture and I thought to myself "wouldn't that be a bad deal if he got after me for not bringing him in and then when I did, he didn't get the neccesary care/treatments that he needed". I had worked myself into a pretty good mad but by the time I got home the other kids needed me, we had chores to do, life must go on. I started dinner and headed out to do chores. When I got back in and checked on him he was to 105. I gave him more Tylenol and put cold washclothes on him and calmly called Primary's. Of course it is after clinic hours so I wait for the on-call DR. (which happened to be another PA) to come to the phone. She preceeds to ask why Lucas (the PA I saw in clinic) didn't take a viral panal and start him on Tamiflu. I explained to her how unhappy I was about the way things were handled in the clinic but I just need to know what to do now. She told me to go to the ER and be stern with them until they called Primary's. Then she happily said "my shift ends right now but I will give this info to the next on-call Dr. Let me see who it is . . . (pause) and then I hear her laughing) your not going to believe who it is!! It's Lucas." Just great! So I load Kael up and head to the ER. On the way in I decided to call our Pediatricians office to see which Dr. was on-call in his office. Maybe, just maybe, I would luck out and get Dr. Brown. I lucked out!! He was in his office doing Kids Kare until 9:00 so I decided I would just go there. I was the stoplight away from the hospital when the nurse from Dr. Brown's office called back and said he had just been called out for a delivery and wasn't sure when he would be back. All hopes dashed, so I took him to the ER. Things actually went quite smoothly at the ER. Again, we saw another PA. He tried talking me out of having the viral panel done because if a kid walks in with a fever, they are calling it H1N1, treating them, and sending them on their way. That is great bud but call Primary's and see what my favorite friend (lots of sarcasm) Lucas' says. So we finally get what we want. The nurse comes in and does a nasal flush (awful, awful) and they have to call a curiour to take it to a lab in Salt Lake. They give us Tamaflu and send us home. What a day!
I was suppose to check back in with the clinic the next day to let them know how he was doing. It was afternoon before I called them because I wanted to make sure they had the results of the viral panel. Still no results. However, I am informed that because he is still fevering he needs to go back to the ER for another dose of Rocephin. The blood cultures are not growing anything but as a precautionary thing, that is what we have to do. So I wait for Matti to get off the bus, load the kids up and drop them off at Merr's while we have a sweet round #2 at the ER. Thankfully the lady at the desk was the same but she gave me quite the look when she realized we were there the night before. We saw the same PA and the nurse that came in to do his temp looked at us like she was having a spell of deja-vu. At least that was funny:) Anyway, we get another round of Rocephin and head home. Next day I call - no results to be found. I didn't much care though because I figured he had been treated with either treatment, viral or bacterial. The nurse called me later and confirmed that it was Influenza A or H1N1. So we haven't really changed anything. No more Rocephin and we are off oral chemo for a few days. He is feeling pretty good right now but I will not be sending him back to school until next week. So far so good for the other kids. It's been an eventful week so far around here but I am still thankful for my blessings and grateful it is just the Swine Flu:) I feel like sausage!

I have to say a big THANKS to Matt. He kept Trey and Kays all day Monday, worked on the phone/computer, and it was his day for chores on the farm - not easy to do with a 3 and 1 year old!! Anyhow, THANKS honey and a BIG thankyou to our neighbors and good friends, Brad and Joni. We called them at 11 o'clock Monday night because we were out of Tylenol. Not only did they have tylenol, she sent a dozen homemade pumpkin/chocolate chip muffins!! Lovely. Also, Joni picked up a few groceries for me and has insisted that she drive this week, even though it is my turn to take kids for the carpool! I am so grateful for great friends and family. THANKS EVERYONE!!!