Monday, July 24, 2006

A little pneumonia

This will be quick -- Dayssi was admitted to the hospital on Saturday afternoon with a little pneumonia. I say "a little" because the doctors are not terribly concerned about it. It is a very small infection in the right lobe of her lung. She woke up with a fever on Saturday, no other symptoms, and the doctor hesitated before asking us to bring her in to the ER because her counts were so high on Wednesday. It is a good thing we did because a chest x-ray revealed the pneumonia and we were able to get a jump on treating it. And, Dayssi's ANC plunged from 2800 (normal range) on Wednesday to 800 (just below normal) on Saturday, to 300 (!) (neutropenic) on Sunday. It appears to be a normal dip in the chemotherapy cycle but it is kind of startling how fast it can drop. Dayssi is off chemo until her ANC comes back up to 75o. This morning she was at 360.

Dayssi feels and looks great, and none of us are terribly stressed at the moment. The doctors and nurses chuckle and look perplexed at how perfectly healthy she seems. She's taking 3 intravenous antibiotics and they seem to be helping -- already she is coughing a little, a sign that the infection is loosening up.

Not sure when we'll be released, no one has even mentioned it yet. I think she has to go for at least a day without fever and they'll probably do another chest x-ray beforehand. We will keep you posted.

2 comments:

Elaine said...

Thanks for the update. Thank goodness you were alert to the fever! Give Dayssi extra hugs from us.

Loads of love.

Victoria said...

Hi Dayssi,

I'm sorry to hear you're in the hospital again. I pray that you will get well soon and be able to play with Naomi again! It was very nice to meet you and your family last week.

Much love,

Victoria
(AKA Tee-tee, short for auntie...that's what Naomi and Jeremiah call me. You can call me that too if you want to!)