IVIG Aborted

12/20/06

Well, the short version is that Erin ran a fever on Monday while the nurse was doing vitals to prep for the IVIG (intravenous immuno globulin) infusion and they could not go ahead with it. Pause...Erin just wandered in and asked me if I was going to write about the "stinky" day we had on Monday...Resume. I don't think I'll give you the whole run down about how the triage nurse had it on her mind to stuff us right into the hospital without passing go and didn't really want to hear my non-medical opinion that Erin had her port out last March and didn't need to be cultured or hospitalized when she ran a fever. The question I asked was, could we have the IVIG infusion with a fever or should we just go home before we made other people sick. We were only there four and a half hours before we got an answer. . .go home. We didn't need to hear it twice and were on the elevator before you can say scat. We grabbed Davis and his meager basket of essential stuff and headed down the highway.

The longer version would include the story of the Erin who hasn't felt well since the last update. Until today everything pointed towards viruses that just needed to run their course. Today, Dr. Parr found an ear infection and heard a little rattle in her chest. So, Erin started a Z-Pak, and I think she feels a little better already.

It has been so strange to see our little trooper so down and out. She hasn't eaten much in a pretty long time and is lethargic. Her cough could wake the dead, and she is breathing more shallowly than usual. I can't wait for her to feel better so we can get back to our normal routines, another of which was thrown off last night.

We had waited to put our Christmas tree up until Davis got back from college. Yesterday he and Erin picked it out together. It is by far the largest we have ever had. Davis had to do battle with it to cut it, to carry it home, and with Walter, to get it set up in the living room. All the while I made Erin rest so she would feel like putting on ornaments in the evening. We sat down to dinner, where Erin ate eight bites of green chile chicken tamales, got the chills, recorded a temp of 103.1, took a Tylenol, and promptly fell asleep. It put a damper on the festivities.

Today (post Z-Pak) she is feeling well enough to complain of boredom and ask when Walter and I are going out so she can watch television. Things must be getting better!

Hopefully things will get better quickly and I can post a livelier update before Christmas. In the meanwhile, all of our thanks and appreciation go out to our friends who have given up their lunch for Erin. She has earned 314 ornaments thanks to your generosity. I wish I could express my gratitude to each of you in person. It truly resonates the spirit of the season when people busy with their own joys and families can take the time to think of those like Erin, and actually go to the effort to do something to make them better off! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

P.S. We at least had the good news on Monday that Erin's potassium levels had improved and were now merely low (not extra low). Perhaps by next week she can be off the K-tab for good.