Wednesday 2nd March 2011

Luke finished the last intensive chemo treatment last Thursday. Luke had been neutropenic for a while early last week and was unable to attend uni. His levels came good by mid week which was good as it was decided that now was the time to try and fix Luke's ingrown toenail whilst he was between chemos. He was booked to have a side of his nail taken out on Monday 28th Feb. Unfortunately Luke became neutropenic over the weekend and we had to cancel the toe operation till next Monday.

Luke was fighting with a bit of a runny nose. Amy started the process when she came down with a bad cold last Wednesday and it took her about 5 days to recover. We tried to keep them isolated but that's not exactly easy to enforce. His blood was tested again on Monday and his levels were better however he started getting a fever. He got up to 38.3 degrees and when Luke called they said if he got up to 38.5 to go to emergency. His temperature came down but he started showing a few more signs of having a cold. Yesterday he varied from 37 - 38 degrees but today he reached 38.2 degrees before we were due to go in and see the specialist. When we went in his temperature was 38.5. It was decided that they would take blood cultures to see why he had an infection. Within 30 minutes his temperature spiked at 39.5 degrees. The specialist saw Luke and said that unfortunately they couldn't let him leave with such a temperature and that he would have to be admitted.

So poor Luke is now in hospital till they sort out what is causing the infection. He had a chest x-ray so we'll find out the results tomorrow. Luke will be getting his central line taken out of his chest tomorrow. Yay!!!! It's been in him for over a year and there is a chance that this has become infected. However I'm pretty sure the infection will be due to a cold virus. Murray came down with a cold like a tonne of bricks yesterday afternoon. So he can't go near Luke at the moment. I'm just managing to keep a cold at bay - I've got the sore throat and a bit of a runny nose so I just hope it doesn't hit me in the next few days as one of us needs to go and be with him.

Dad has been sick for over a week now with a cough more than a cold. He went to the doctors the other day and he may have had whooping cough. He's been given some strong antibiotics and cough medicine so hopefully he will get better soon. On the last blog, I mentioned that Mum was going in for exploratory surgery on her bladder. Unfortunately once again the surgery got cancelled and she was rebooked for next Tuesday. She had a bit of a scare today when they called and told her they would have to cancel as they had overbooked. However when she said she'd been cancelled twice before they apologised and said they would get in touch with someone else. So hopefully things will go ahead next week. I just hope she doesn't get sick being around Dad.

So unfortunately the family is a bit isolated at the moment with lots of sickness going on. I'm sure Luke will be fine. It's probably best that he stay in hospital away from Murray at the moment but he hates being in there as it is so boring. It depends what all the tests show however he could be in hospital for anywhere from 2 day to a week. Let's hope it's a short stay. I'll keep you updated with how things progress.