Trip to the Emergency Room

Isaiah hasn't been able to keep any food or fluids down since Tuesday. Since he's been pretty timid and dehydrated, Erica called Dr. B, Isaiah's Oncologist at Duke to tell him what was going on. He called our local emergency room to let them know we were on our way - he needed to get fluids via IV because he refused to eat or drink (despite a desire to). Dr. B did say that he has never had a kid have this kind of reaction to the dose of chemo Isaiah received, we're hoping it was either a stomach bug or a combo of a bug/chemo. Regardless, we were at the ER for about 6 hours today. They gave Isaiah about 6-700 ml of IV fluids to get him hydrated, some more zofran, and waited till he could hold down some apple juice. Isaiah started acting more chipper as soon as he had the apple juice and the majority of the IV fluids. He's lost about 2 pounds since Tuesday, so not being able to hold food down has had a pretty major impact on him - 27 Ibs to 25 Ibs. We hope that the nausea is over (we keep praying and giving him 2 types of anti-nausea medicines).

I mentioned earlier that Isaiah has to have weekly blood draws check his blood counts (white/red/platlet) to make sure they don't go too low. If they go to low, then he'll need a transfusion. I've been working the past 2-3 days trying to find a company/lab in Fayetteville that will draw blood from Isaiah's port-a-cath, vice poking him in the arm. I finally found one today. It was an interesting twist how it happened. I called a nurse I talked with yesterday from a home health care company who told me another nurse with pediatric experience could come to our home to do the blood draws. Unfortunately we would have to provide the equipment (needle, tubing, saline, heparin [anti-coagulant, so blood doesn't clot in the port]). She provided me a number for an infusion company where I could buy all the needed supplies from. I called the infusion company this morning to find out that they have their own nurses who specialize in infusion/ports/blood draws/IV's. After a couple calls to our insurance company and Isaiah's Oncologist, I set up a reoccuring appointment with the local infusion company to come to our home and draw Isaiah's blood. The nurse will take it to a lab, who will then fax all results to Duke. Insurance covers it all ... I'm sure we have a normal copay though.
Back to watching Sponge Bob ...