Another unfortunate first

After a fun and busy day celebrating Annikka's birthday, Eila had a fever of 102.  We took her to the emergency room, while cousin Emilie took Annikka home with her, and found out that Eila would be admitted (although this was not a big surprise after my conversation with the nurse the other day).

Low blood counts + high fever = hospital stay for a chemo patient 

Eila has never been in this situation before and we really struggled with what to do.  She could be transferred by ambulance to Doernbecher or she could stay here.  We talked to the on-call oncologist in Portland and we talked to the local hospital's pediatrician, and ultimately the decision was ours.  

From Sept/Oct2015

We went back and forth about the pros and cons of both stays and finally decided to have Eila admitted here in town.  She doesn't seem overly sick right now (she hadn't complained once all day about feeling bad), so we thought it was worth trying to see if staying near home with help the rest of our lives be a little less crazy.  She will have to be in the hospital for at least 48 hours while we wait for the results of her blood cultures checking for bacteria (a very serious problem when she has a port).  She also needs to be fever-free, and have her blood counts increase (her neutrophils are currently 304 and need to be 500) before she can leave the hospital.  Fingers crossed for a short and uneventful stay.