Day +9 -- more fever and worry

Okay, now I am getting worried about the fevers that keep happening even though he is on two IV antibiotics. Last night Doug continued to be feverish. His temp came down later in the morning but went up and down during the day. This evening at 6:30, I took his temp -- it showed 102.3, the highest yet. We rang for the nurse to come check it, and while waiting (the waits always seem endless when one is worried), I took it again. This time it showed 103, not good. The nurse came in and gave him some more Tylenol, and drew blood from his central line for more cultures. So far the blood cultures have come back negative (meaning no 'bugs' were found), but they keep thinking something will show up. If they can define what type of bacteria is causing the infection, then they will know which antibiotic will fight it.

I just called the nursing station a few minutes ago and his nurse said his temp now is 100 and she thought he was doing okay.

The Dr. who made rounds said all this is "par for the course" but it sure doesn't seem that way to me. When he listened to Doug's chest, he heard what he called "icky sounds" on the right side. I asked him what he meant and he said it could be from Doug not taking deep enough breaths, or it could be an early pneumonia that didn't show on the first X-ray. A repeat chest X-ray is ordered for tomorrow. The doc said that if it is a pneumonia, then the antibiotics he is already on "should take care of it". Not very reassuring to me at this point. Doug is now on oxygen, and part of my job is to remind him to take deep breaths.

He is extremely fatigued and nods off a lot, even once when holding the thermometer in his mouth. Just getting up and going to the bathroom which is three feet from his bed wipes him out. The fevers are causing a lot of the fatigue, and I think all the the drugs play a part too. He is getting very little rest, with IV alarms going off frequently, and nurses checking vital signs every four hours, even at night. He sometimes talks in his sleep and says silly things, but is very lucid when awake.

He is not eating much at all -- too hard to swallow. One nurse said she could see "blisters in his mouth". This is from the high dose chemo and we were told to expect it -- one of the more difficult side effects. He did manage to drink two bottles of Ensure over ice during the day.

I think Doug will be in the hospital more than "a couple of days". Now the doc wants to keep him in until his "absolute neutrophil count" gets up to 500. Currently they are zero. Neutrophils are components of the white blood cells that fight infection. Everyone says that between days +10 and +14 the stem cells engraft and the blood counts start to climb. Then he will start to feel better. I hope! This is no fun.