Merry Christmas?

Well, as noted before, Kathie got to get the second part of her treatment yesterday on Christmas Eve. Kathie and Bob spent the 23rd night at Lauren's fiance's (yes, you read that correctly) family's house.

The appointment was early on the 24th, and since Winston is about an hour an a half from Eddie's, it was worth being 10 minutes down the road instead. Blood tests showed her white counts as decent - but she pretty much slept the day away after receiving her Erbitux.

Unfortunately, Eddie's house has been a house of disease. Emily had some sort of virus at the beginning of last week, and a cough that was going off and on most of the week. Bob had/has a sinus infection, Lauren is suspecting she has managed to get a lovely case of bronchitis (self-diagnosis... she'll go into urgent care tomorrow if she still feels this badly). Lynette has a bit of a cold, and Ben (Lauren's fiance as of 12/13) also was starting to get a bit of a cold as well, but has now retreated back with his family in Winston. Basically, Kathie was surrounded by germs... and despite best efforts to not breathe around her (and a ridiculous amount of hand washing)... she seems to have caught something.

As a result, Kathie spiked a fever of 103 last night, which almost earned her a first class car ride back to Winston-Salem to get checked into the hospital (apparently, you can't have cancer on Christmas Eve or Christmas - the cancer center at Rex in Raleigh was closed, as was the one at Wake Forest in Winston, but in Winston they were going to admit her to the hospital right away, in Raleigh, we would have had to go through the emergency room). The doctor prescribed a z-pak, and we have all been crossing our fingers that she isn't neutropenic. Luckily, Walgreens was open last night, so Bob and Lauren picked up her z-pak along with more meds for Lauren.

Some tylenol and a wet wash cloth got Kathie's fever down to 100... and the decision was made to just keep checking overnight. Kathie and Lauren slept downstairs on the couches... Lauren waking up every two hours to feel Kathie's forehead. Everything seemed fine at 3:30 AM when Lauren did her last check, but Bob came down at 5:30, and Kathie was back up past 102. Again, she almost got to take a trip to Winston, but a little bit of time, tylenol and the wash cloth took it back down to almost normal... so the doctor said to wait and see if the z-pak helped. However, if her fever goes back up, Bob is taking her to Wake Forest to get some blood tests and an IV going. Merry Christmas, huh?

Anyway, Kathie does not feel like she is neutropenic - she is not feeling the weakness she has in the past, she's just tired, and has a very attractive cough... second only to Lauren's. Just in case she is neutropenic, those questionable foods are being avoided until we know that low neutrophils are not the cause of her fever.

On the positive side, Lynette was able to extend her and the girls tickets, so she and the twins are still here visiting grandma - giving her a healthy dose of laughs and smiles.

Posted by Lauren