Back on the Rollercoaster (Day +7)

Max continued to be bothered throughout the day by high temperatures and showed little of the good form of last week. A number of doctors have been through the room to have a look at Max and the prevailing consensus is that he probably does have an infection of some sort. This is a very common occurence in patients post transplant given the weakened state of the immune system and whilst it is a concern, it is certainly not a suprise to us. As one doctor put it, usually medicine is about taking a sick person and making them healthy where as a bone marrow transplant involves making a relatively healthy person sick first and then making them healthy.

They are treating Max by adding and changing the mix of antibiotics he is on to hopefully knock whatever ever bug might be causing the fever on its head. He had a chest X ray today and that came back clear so that's a good sign at least in the short term that his lungs are holding up.They are also 'flushing' his body to aid his circulation and giving him panadol every 6 hours to help knock down his temperature. We have decided to drop back the feeds to 5ml an hour to slow down the 'chocolate fountain' and lower his pain relief medication as we want him to be as alert as possible.

The good news is that by late Monday evening the changes to his treatment have had an effect. His temperature is down from over 40C (highest 40.7C) to around 38.5C, his heart rate is down from around 190 bpm to a far more relaxing 140 bpm and his blood pressure numbers have been high, but relatively good throughout the day. He was even well enough to demand the undivided attention of Bee, ordering 'Mummy, don't talk to Daddy'. As we have learnt the next few weeks will be a rollercoaster ride of watching these kpi's and others go up and down but it's comforting to see that Max has responded well to today's challenges.

Cheers,

Tim