Morning Update

Good morning!! Thank you all for your love and prayers as we try to get to the bottom of why our buddy feels so yucky.  I am sorry our update last night was so "auto corrected" and hard to decipher:)  I love my iphone, but it is hard to update the blog with very little sleep on a tiny phone.

Why we got so nervous yesterday was that David's overall health declined yesterday.  Friday we went to Hungry Mother and played and after that outing David just refused to really speak or get up and move around.  Ashley had him Friday night and said he did not speak hardly at all.  Saturday Mike had him while I went to a swim meet with Kyle and then I took Hope to the pool to swim.  When we got home from the pool, Mike said that David had slept all afternoon and had hardly spoken two words. 

Then David and Kyle went to the basement to play Xbox.  David fell asleep on Kyle while playing Xbox.  Mike picked him up and tried to rouse him, but he was so sleepy-headed that we could not really get him to respond.  I called our on-call oncologist and we decided that he needed labs done because he was probably dehydrated or needed blood transfusion.

When we got to our amazing ER, Dr. "Mo" decided his port needed to be accessed because he looked a little dry and needed fluids.  The amazing Nurse Tiffany accessed his port beautifully and then fluids were started.  We all expected his labs to be bottomed-out and we were shocked when they came back mostly in the normal range except for dehydration.  He looked way better on paper than he did in real life. Once again our local ER did a fabulous job with our Rock Star.  Dr. "Mo", Hope's "blue doctor" (aka Keith Kilby), Nurses Tiffany and Joe were so responsive and kind to us. 

Then we realized that his temperature was rising and we got nervous.  We know that bacterial infections hit him hard and fast and we are still concerned that perhaps his port is colonized with bacteria and that is why he continues to get sick like this.

It was finally decided that he needed to get to UVA quickly in case he deteriorates on the road, and so I decided to call the helicopter to take him.  David and I loaded up and got here in a little over an hour.  The Wings crew was so awesome and kind and they got this scared Momma and sleepy David here quickly and safely.  I will never forget how darn cute David looked in that helicopter with his little stick-on ear muffs over his ears to buffer out the loud noises.  Helicopters are loud.  Very loud.

So we got here and the familiar drill of labs, blood cultures, etc.. started.  The oncologist was concerned that David perhaps was suffering from a rare side effect of chemo which is a brain bleed and that is why he has been so unresponsive.  When we arrived in the ER he quickly had a chest xray and a head CT scan.  We were so nervous about that head CT scan as you can imagine.  When the results came back at 4 a.m. that it was clear we were over the moon excited!!! 

So we are sadly once again back on 7 West with our buddy.  Hope is on a swim playdate today and Kyle is heading to the first round of the Area Baseball tournament to play Abingdon today with GG and Pops.  Mike and I are both sad that we have to miss him pitching today, but Jesus will be with him on the mound today and we are anxiously awaiting updates during the game from our friends. 

Mike met with Dr. Alisanski this morning during rounds and we need to decide about the port today.  We are leaning towards taking it out and puting a PICC line in his arm for the last two remaining treatments.  We both feel that this port is causing this weird but scary sickness. 

The other concern is that maybe this is not another line infection but perhaps viral meningitis.  He is being monitored for symptoms of that.  As of this morning he still has a low grade fever and his pulse rate is still running high again.  We are both frustrated that we are back again but we are so thankful for the great care from our local hospital and here at UVA. 

David looks punky and pale this morning.  This place is not the same without Haley up here!  I did get a text from her Momma that she is doing good at home. We are so happy for them:)

So once again we are in wait mode to see what is going on with our buddy.  We pray for our Kyle today who is pitching in his game at 2:00.  Thank you so much for your prayers and love:)