Stupid Poop

Why do I always speak too soon?  Last night as I was laying Averi down in her bed for the night, I thought her head felt a bit warm.  The nurse had just taken her temperature with a tempadot (disposable thermometer) and it was normal.  I decided to pull out our speedy digital thermometer and take an oral temperature.  Sure enough, she had a fever.

Fevers for an oncology patient are totally different.  As always, it meant drawing more blood cultures, starting IV antibiotics,  and constantly checking vitals.  As the night progressed, her blood pressure dropped low enough that they had to give her a large saline bolus in hopes of adding some volume to her blood.  That only lasted a little while before she dropped and needed another bolus.

By this morning, the nurse practitioner came in and told me that if she needed another bolus, Averi was going to be transported to the PICU.  The nurse continued to do vitals every 30 minutes for the entire day.  Poor Averi is such a trooper and put up with it even though she felt horrible.

When the doctors came to do rounds, they informed me that the cultures taken on Tuesday had grown gram negative cells and they added a third antibiotic.  We all know what that means - the nerve raking cap change I did at home didn't help.  The poop got into her blood anyways and now she's sick.  Ahhhhh!

Thankfully her blood pressures have stayed level today and she hasn't had to go down to the PICU.  Hopefully the antibiotics start to kick in soon and she feels better tomorrow