Illness

When Caleb was hospitalized in August after having a fever and not being able to keep anything down and refusing to eat/drink, we learned that his infection fighting cells were basically non-existent.  It took almost two months for his infection fighting cells to go back to where they were supposed to be.  Because of the concern regarding his infection cells, we consulted with a blood specialist, as it was thought that one of or some of Caleb's medications were causing the problem.  We thought that we might have to take Caleb off of some of his meds and weren't sure that was an option, as he was at the most stable point that he had been at in a long time.

After meeting with the blood specialist, he made us feel better about the situation, that we didn't need to take Caleb off of any of his meds.  In his words, the benefit of him being on the meds outweighed the risks at the present time.  Although he did caution us, if Caleb began to run a fever, we needed to get him into the doctor at the earliest possible time to have him examined.  He also cautioned that we would need to have blood work down to check those infection fighting cell level and see where they were at.  If they were dangerously low again, he would need to be hospitalized and treated with IV antibiotics.

Well, yesterday afternoon, Caleb began running a fever.  It got as high as 101 last night.  This morning he woke up and his fever was 103.  I was grateful that our pediatrician was at the clinic office closest to our house.  I called and was able to get her first appointment.  We arrived at the clinic at 8:30 and saw the doctor.  She ordered labs and a strep culture.  Fortunately, the strep culture came back negative and then we waited for the CBC results to come back.  The knock came on the door and it was the nurse, the lab needed us to come back and do the tests again because of a clotting problem.  My poor baby needed to be stuck again.  Caleb is horribly afraid of blood work.  He has probably had more blood tests in his 8 years (almost 9), than I have had in my entire life.  I was very proud of him, though!  He was very brave and didn't fight too much. 

Fortunately, they were able to complete the test this time and the infection fighting cells were within the normal range!  Thank God!!  Our pediatrician is absolutely wonderful.  She understands Caleb and his issues.  She said that we could do the influenza tests; however, she did not recommend it because it wasn't accurate and she knew that Caleb would not handle the test well.  She decided to go ahead and treat him with Tamiflu hoping that it would hasten the virus that Caleb is fighting. 

Caleb's fever has not gone down below 102 all day today.  I'm praying that tomorrow he will wake up fever free!