Stupid bacteria

Just when you think it's safe to breathe, Logan throws a curve ball.  I try to not to get all excited about good news, because I know the possibility of bad news is right around the corner and with Logan it usually comes from left field. For instance.... Stable MRI - newly discovered tumor on his liver.  Stable MRI - Hip effusion leaving him unable to walk for weeks. After receiving the good news of Logan's first "off chemo" stable MRI, we were blindsided by another little complication we certainly were not expecting.

We have discussed recently with the doctors when Logan's port would come out because as long as it is in, Logan is at greater risk for life threatening infections.  Think about it, this port is a window into an otherwise closed system of blood supply for his entire body. This is why the fever protocol we follow is so important, although at times seems silly. Up until now we have had very little problem with it.  Occasional trips to the ER for antibiotics with no real bacterial threat ever present. UP UNTIL NOW.

Logan started feeling ill Sunday and complained of a sore throat.  At that point with a slight fever and sore throat my first thought was strep throat and my plan was to just take him to the pediatrician first thing Monday morning. As the night went on the fever continued to rise.  By the time we went to bed his fever was 102.  I started to think about the fever protocol, and in the back of my mind thought "he's off chemo, his blood counts aren't compromised, this can probably wait until the morning."  I gave him some Tylenol, cool wash cloth for his head and tried to get him to get some sleep.  He was clearly uncomfortable and the fever continued to rise and then next time I checked he was at 104.3.  Ok, it was time to call it.  4AM - We headed to the ER where we did the standard IV antibiotics, blood tests and set up a time to return for round two.

This is where things went a little differently.  When we arrived at the clinic for round 2, I got a call to tell me that the blood culture taken the previous night tested positive for bacteria.  It was determined that he would have to be admitted until they knew exactly what bacteria it was so they could assure they were using an appropriate antibiotic.  Here's the tricky thing about bacteria: apparently you have to wait for it to grow to a certain stage before it can be classified, and that takes time... a lot of time.  After several days in the hospital, being monitored and receiving IV antibiotics, they were able to get the answers from the blood culture that they needed and we were able to go home Thursday afternoon.

Once home, we got a package of medical supplies and medication delivered to the house and had a nurse come to the home to teach us how to administer IV meds.  Logan had 6 more at home doses of IV antibiotics to go.  It's pretty easy, just fairly inconvenient as this mean even more missed work.  He now has 2 more days of this before the nurse will come back to our house to de-access his port and he can hopefully go back to school and be done with all this bacteria drama.

On a side note: Since we did not expect when we went in to the clinic that we would be staying for multiple nights, we did not bring any supplies, including Logan's ADHD meds.  It took awhile to get them to approve and get him this drug from their pharmacy and Logan missed two doses.  Believe me when I say, these pills are a VITAL part of Logan's ability to function and my ability to stay sane!  Lesson learned - ALWAYS bring extra pills with us wherever we go!!!