Day 66
Day 66
Today is John’s 6th day in the hospital for his fever. They had isolated a strep infection in his blood, but he’s pretty much had all the anti-anything medication, general and specific, I think they have and he is still having headaches and an up and down fever. They can’t find any infection in his blood now. We can add nausea again to his problems, since he threw up in the night. He is on oxygen now, because of fluid in his lungs. Oh, and he is getting inflamed spots on his skin that could be due to some of the antibiotics, or might be something else. Today’s new test will be a biopsy on one of these lesions. He’s already had one x-ray, two CAT scans, a heart test and daily blood exams.
Yesterday, John did have some good periods. He even explained to the doctor how he had figured a way to manage his pain and fever with a combination of oxycodone and Tylenol every 5 hours. I brought him a milkshake after his dinner, which he enjoyed while we set him up a new email account. (Emory will be dropping his old one shortly). Unfortunately, his fever spiked in the night and he threw up. This morning, he is half-sleeping, though we did spend some time looking online at a laptop to replace his computer, which doesn’t travel to hospitals well. He is using mine for now, but his needs are at another whole level.
We are still scheduled to fly to Seattle on Tuesday afternoon, but we will have to postpone his evaluation there if he doesn’t improve in a day or so. Currently, his white count is still around .1 or so, which is the low point they shoot for. It has been that way, however, since shortly after he was admitted. They have been giving him growth factor hormones to try and speed the process. Basically, they don’t really know what’s going on inside him. He’s not getting better, as he should, and, for some reason, could be getting a bit worse.
John is getting some hair back. I don’t know if it will fall out again or not, but it is a bit longer than peach fuzz. It could be an effect from the growth factor medication.
John started a weblog this week. He has been keeping a journal since this experience began and he decided to move to an online version, so people could stay informed and could also add their own comments. The site is
http://www.livejournal.com/users/johnvscancer
If you do respond on the blog, try not to embarrass him. I think I do enough of that as it is. There is also a link on the blog to his webcomic, Zorro and Esther.
Today is John’s 6th day in the hospital for his fever. They had isolated a strep infection in his blood, but he’s pretty much had all the anti-anything medication, general and specific, I think they have and he is still having headaches and an up and down fever. They can’t find any infection in his blood now. We can add nausea again to his problems, since he threw up in the night. He is on oxygen now, because of fluid in his lungs. Oh, and he is getting inflamed spots on his skin that could be due to some of the antibiotics, or might be something else. Today’s new test will be a biopsy on one of these lesions. He’s already had one x-ray, two CAT scans, a heart test and daily blood exams.
Yesterday, John did have some good periods. He even explained to the doctor how he had figured a way to manage his pain and fever with a combination of oxycodone and Tylenol every 5 hours. I brought him a milkshake after his dinner, which he enjoyed while we set him up a new email account. (Emory will be dropping his old one shortly). Unfortunately, his fever spiked in the night and he threw up. This morning, he is half-sleeping, though we did spend some time looking online at a laptop to replace his computer, which doesn’t travel to hospitals well. He is using mine for now, but his needs are at another whole level.
We are still scheduled to fly to Seattle on Tuesday afternoon, but we will have to postpone his evaluation there if he doesn’t improve in a day or so. Currently, his white count is still around .1 or so, which is the low point they shoot for. It has been that way, however, since shortly after he was admitted. They have been giving him growth factor hormones to try and speed the process. Basically, they don’t really know what’s going on inside him. He’s not getting better, as he should, and, for some reason, could be getting a bit worse.
John is getting some hair back. I don’t know if it will fall out again or not, but it is a bit longer than peach fuzz. It could be an effect from the growth factor medication.
John started a weblog this week. He has been keeping a journal since this experience began and he decided to move to an online version, so people could stay informed and could also add their own comments. The site is
http://www.livejournal.com/users/johnvscancer
If you do respond on the blog, try not to embarrass him. I think I do enough of that as it is. There is also a link on the blog to his webcomic, Zorro and Esther.
