When her temperature stays above 100.4 for an hour, or when it reaches 101, we call the doctors, and they treat it like an infection which surely means going to clinic or ER and possibly hospital admittance.
Emma stayed pretty lethargic, so we started watching her temperature. At about 6:00 her temp was 100.8. At 6:30 it was 101.9 and we called. While we were waiting for the on-call oncologist to return the call, Clinton and I tossed stuff into a suitcase for an overnighter. Dayna called as I was zipping up and said to come in.
Emma and I jumped in the car and got to Primary's Emergency Room just after 7:00. As we walked through the door, the receptionist asked if this was Emma and we went right in. Incidentally, 20.8Kg is her highest weight, and probably will be for a while since we're off steroids.
They accessed her port, took blood, gave her an antibiotic, some tylenol, and some fluids. The doctor was concerned about her tummy being so tender. She's been battling constipation - a common side effect of her treatment.
They did an X-ray of her tummy. Her fever came down a bit. We watched Swan Princess. Her X-ray showed a lot of constipation and impacted blockage. We started another movie. Her temperature got to normal.
The doctor explained about typhlitis and wanted to be sure we weren't getting that, which would be a really bad thing. At 11:00 she took the contrast (dye) for a C/T scan, which takes an hour to work through the system. At midnight we went in for the C/T scan. At about 1:15 the C/T scan came back negative. YAY! Discharge orders, de-access port, and we were home right at 2:00 a.m.
Next day the fever did not return. They figure it's viral; but we need to keep a watch on her. And we get the weekend to try to clear the constipation with miralax and prune juice before taking more aggressive action. Ugh, I know. Gross; but that's one of the complications of treatment for Leukemia.
