10/24/10 - And.....back again

Brinley was released yesterday morning from St. George's hospital, so David and Brinley drove home. At 4am she got another fever, so she was directly admitted to Primary's and is there now. Her ANC is still 0. I'm not sure how much longer they will keep her, the fever went away and has not returned yet, so tomorrow is a possibility if her counts begin to rebound a bit. If you are unfamiliar with ANC, that stands for Absolute Neutrophil Count, and gives an idea of how her body is equipped to fight infection. The number comes from a combination of white blood cells and neutrophils (the white cells that protect the body against infection by destroying bacteria). Her neutrophils are 0, which means there is nothing in there to fight bacteria, and even a normal amount of bacteria inside her body can become dangerous when there is nothing to fight it.

A normal person's ANC would be somewhere around 5000. Anything under 500 is considered neutropenic and in the danger zone for infection. They are giving her a very strong antibiotic to counter her inability to fight infection, but the culture still has not grown anything, so it doesn't look like that is the culprit. But we will need her marrow to start making those important cells again so she is out of the danger zone.

Other than her lack of white blood cells, David says she is feeling fine. Talking non-stop and happy as can be. The rest of us just arrived home from a long drive from Las Vegas. I had to get my first Monster drink ever because I was running on 4 hours of sleep and needed to make it home without falling asleep. It did the job, I didn't get tired at all, in fact, I may be up all night.

I had a knot in my stomach all weekend, so I am glad to be home and closer to Brinley. I will be going in the morning to stay with Brinley while David goes to work. I will try and update tomorrow, and hopefully it will be good news.

We appreciate your prayers so much. Hospital stays are very difficult on our family.