Anyhow, just 2 weeks after returning from a wonderful long and relatively 'normal' family holiday in sunny Queensland the record finally ran out. 15 months after her last night in hospital, tonight Celia and Lydia are once again back on Ward 41 North at Monash Medical Centre.
I'm doing full daddy duty - home made thai spicy dippers for dinner, bath, hair wash, stories and two tired babies fast asleep by 7.30. So far so good, until Mabel inevitably wakes up at 1am as she has done every night for weeks!
Celia's been tired for a couple of days and yesterday her latest blood test showed her lowest neutrophil reading for over a year. This means she has zero immunity from any virus and has caught something minor (a cold?) which is now driving her temperature through the roof.
Anything above 37.8 degrees is deemed to be dangerously high at the best of times. Combine that with no immunity and it means immediate hospital admission. Last night her temp reached 38.7. We waited until this morning before going to hospital (earning ourselves a firm but clear reprimand from the doctor in the process) and then found that by mid morning she had peaked at 39.4 degrees which is the highest either of us have ever seen. She's fine now - a drip all afternoon, some sleep and some panadol has made her feel fine and brought her temp back to normal.
The best guess so far is that she'll be in for two or three days for various tests and monitoring just to see what small virus she has picked up. Her chemo has been stopped which means her neutrophil readings should improve quickly. So all being well our house will be full again by the weekend. We're not at all worried at this point. Every single one of our other cancer family friends have been through this on several occasions. It is simply just something that happens as part of Celia's journey.
More soon.
AK.
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| Icecream in Port Douglas |
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| On the way to Green Island, Great Barrier Reef |
