After a hot evening playing a t-ball game Max ended up at home with a fever. It came out of nowhere with no other symptoms attached. I delayed a little too long in getting him to the hospital in hopes that he was just a little dehydrated from playing so hard in the sun. However by the time we had consulted with the on-call oncologist and made it to the hospital around 11pm, Max already had tachycardia and seemed to be going into adrenal crisis. They were very concerned that his port had a bacterial infection which could lead to sepsis. After a few hours of IV fluids, antibiotics, and close observation they were able to pump him full of enough steroids to get his system to calm down and finally around 4 am got us admitted to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) floor at Children's Hospital for further tests and observations.
Even with the increased steroids Max's OMS flared up while under observation. Of course while we were inpatient both our oncologist and neurologist were out of town, so we had delayed answers and a hard time coming up with a treatment plan. We continued with increased steroids and an emergency infusion of IVIG to try to help him feel better. It seems that the antibiotics we used seemed to clear up the underlying condition within a few days, after many tests we were unable to pinpoint the actual infection.
We were extremely lucky this wasn't worse and a good wake up a call for the importance for us to respond quickly at the first sign of a fever. We have emergency shots that Max keeps at school, home, car, etc. that can be administered upon the first sign of stress on his body.
Our medical team is still unsure how to proceed at this point, we are headed to Boston in a couple weeks to get some more help from our neuroimmunology specialist. Stay tuned for further updates.
Our medical team is still unsure how to proceed at this point, we are headed to Boston in a couple weeks to get some more help from our neuroimmunology specialist. Stay tuned for further updates.
