Jake spiked a fever, again. His counts dropped to zero (no immune system) and I told him to stay in the house Friday. He had a fever of 100 on Thursday, but we wanted to wait until Friday to see if it would get better or worse. He didn't listen to mom and went over the a friends house...just for an hour or so, but that was long enough. Friday, I finally found the ambition to paint grandma's room. I got the walls patched and ready for paint. I checked Jake's temperature at 10 and it was up to 101.6. I gave him some of his antibiotics and told him that if he still had a fever at noon he would have to go to the hospital. I was about to walk out the door to pick up some paint supplies when I thought I had better check on him again. Still had the fever so to SLC we went. He said he didn't want to go, but it was Friday and the clinic wasn't open the next day. I warned he that he might have to stay overnight. He said he wouldn't do it! You have to understand 2 things at this point. 1) Jake is 19 and still thinks he's invincible! 2) At this point, Jake is so tired of hospital stays and hospital food, smell, pokes and pukes...I can't really blame him for not wanting to go. But we are almost through it!
Interestingly, when we got to PCMC, there was hardly any patients in the clinic. Most had come in the morning. There was one toddler girl in a room with her dad and a 5 year old girl in the back getting something in an IV. Dr. Wright said that by chance his ANC was above .5, he would only have to have one dose of IV antibiotics, then he could go home. However, since his ANC was zero the day before, chances were very slim that this would happen. Typically, he would have to stay overnight for more antibiotics, but since Jake did very well at home and he is older, she said she would let him have the home care nurse give him antibiotics at home. Amazingly, his ANC was up to 1.6! We were out of there in just over an hour and on our way home!
I was ecstatic that it wasn't worse! I said, "See! That wasn't so bad!
Jake's reply: "For you!"
Ok, well it could be worse! (Sigh!)
Next day, Jake was feeling much, much better. I had to go back to giving him the shots, but hopefully, he won't need them come Monday.
For some reason, emotionally, I don't mind taking him for planned visits. It's the unplanned visits get to me. Although the doctors and nurses assure me that it's all normal, it's hard not to see it as a set back. This morning I made the boys a huge breakfast to motivate them to get out of bed (in time for church). We were having our usual jovial bantering and Jake was pretending to cry about something. Zack had teased him about cancer making him something or another...I added, cancer makes you cry. He said, "No, mom! cancer makes you cry!" He was right. Loving and caring for a boy who has to have cancer as a challenge in his life, makes me cry sometimes.
Lesson learned: In the ballgame of life, the pitcher is not going to throw the ball the same way every time. You have to be flexible! Sometimes getting on base and letting someone else hit you in is just as good as hitting a home run! Life is a team sport. You don't have to do it all by yourself. And best of all, if Jesus and Heavenly Father are on your team, you always win! :)
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