After a successful wedding the night before, Sunday was spent in the ER as Max woke up with a temperature of about 103. Fevers in oncology patients are a big deal and require immediate attention, we called the dr and they had a room waiting for us when we got to the hospital. Max isn't allowed to have tylenol or motrin because it can mask symptoms that can help us determine there is an infection, so he was feeling pretty yucky! While Max is speaking better he is still not old enough to communicate what doesn't feel well, so we spent the day running tests trying to figure out what was going on in his little body that would cause such a high fever. Since we were around a crowd of people the night before it was difficult for us to narrow down any specific viruses or infections he may have been exposed to, his blood counts were off so we knew something was going on but we had to just keep guessing. While we were waiting he was able to get a bag of IV fluids to help keep him hydrated. Luckily we were able to rule out any serious bacterial infections and were told we need to watch and wait for more symptoms, we also were given permission to give 3 doses of tylenol through the night, but no more. As we were about to be discharged the nurse and I noticed something wasn't right with Max and found that the IV that was in the port in his chest must have dislodged and became stuck in his chest and his chest cavity had filled up with the fluids he should have been receiving. It was a little scary at first as we weren't sure what had happened. Luckily they hadn't hung any antibiotics yet and it was just saline. The doctors determined that he was going to be okay and the body should easily reabsorb the extra fluids within a week, but it did leave him with very swollen pecs and lots of bruising. It would have been a much bigger issue had it have happened with some other type of fluid. God was watching out for us today, and it was a blessing that this happened after the wedding so that we could all be a part of the ceremony and it was a nice wakeup call for us to continue to be cautious about our exposure to germs.
Burt Family 2013
Monday, February 21, 2011
ER Visit - Fever
After a successful wedding the night before, Sunday was spent in the ER as Max woke up with a temperature of about 103. Fevers in oncology patients are a big deal and require immediate attention, we called the dr and they had a room waiting for us when we got to the hospital. Max isn't allowed to have tylenol or motrin because it can mask symptoms that can help us determine there is an infection, so he was feeling pretty yucky! While Max is speaking better he is still not old enough to communicate what doesn't feel well, so we spent the day running tests trying to figure out what was going on in his little body that would cause such a high fever. Since we were around a crowd of people the night before it was difficult for us to narrow down any specific viruses or infections he may have been exposed to, his blood counts were off so we knew something was going on but we had to just keep guessing. While we were waiting he was able to get a bag of IV fluids to help keep him hydrated. Luckily we were able to rule out any serious bacterial infections and were told we need to watch and wait for more symptoms, we also were given permission to give 3 doses of tylenol through the night, but no more. As we were about to be discharged the nurse and I noticed something wasn't right with Max and found that the IV that was in the port in his chest must have dislodged and became stuck in his chest and his chest cavity had filled up with the fluids he should have been receiving. It was a little scary at first as we weren't sure what had happened. Luckily they hadn't hung any antibiotics yet and it was just saline. The doctors determined that he was going to be okay and the body should easily reabsorb the extra fluids within a week, but it did leave him with very swollen pecs and lots of bruising. It would have been a much bigger issue had it have happened with some other type of fluid. God was watching out for us today, and it was a blessing that this happened after the wedding so that we could all be a part of the ceremony and it was a nice wakeup call for us to continue to be cautious about our exposure to germs.
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