Eric has been fever free for (more than) 48 hours and his blood cultures were clear for 48 hours, but we aren't at home! Eric's ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count) dropped from 0.3 yesterday to 0.0 today. Neutrophils are germ fighting white blood cells. The doctors weren't too thrilled about letting us go when they were 0.3 and today definitely didn't want us leaving. Given Eric's current treatment it is not surprising that his ANC is 0, which puts him at risk of getting very sick, very quickly so they like to have eyes on him. Additionally, since he had the fever he's been receiving IV antibiotics which is good at wiping out everything. The concern is that with his neutrophils low, if he switches to oral antibiotics, there might be something lingering in his body that jumps back up and makes him sick again. I am fairly confident the fever was caused by the ear infection that won't happen, but the doctors here are very cautious. A good thing, I suppose. So they are going to switch his IV antibiotics to oral and monitor him in hospital for another day or two - and hopefully no longer, and hopefully he doesn't spike a fever.
In the meantime, we did get a day pass for today at least, so we were able to be home for Joel's birthday party. He had 7 friends over, which means 8 pre-teen boys in the basement; it was LOUD! Eric was able to play outside with Kianna and Daimon and I was able to have a bath in my tub and snuggle Millie. On the way back to the hospital, Eric declared he was going to have a car nap and then said "but I'm a chatterpants and I need to tell my mouth to zip it!" We arrived back at the hospital around 8:30pm and we've left the house - and the mess - to Chuck, Joel and Millie.
Pics of Joel with his ice cream cake tonight and of the Lego Creative figures that Eric built in the hospital yesterday.
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