Bone Marrow Transplants (BMTs) are great if nothing happens. Friends that have been through this process often wish that we have a boring transplant with nothing exceptional happening as they are the best ones to experience. It takes a little to get your head around that concept but when you start thinking about it, boring in a hospital context means “routine” and “routine” means that it just happens normally. Today, unfortunately was not “routine”. It started off with the kitchen forgetting that Levi was a patient at the hospital, but once that was sorted, it was looking up. Levi had a full tummy and normal observations, Angela came in to relieve us and we were able to make a quick escape in the real world for some fresh air and warmth. I was even able to grab a couple of hours of “catch up” sleep as the night duty is already taking it’s toll. Then Chemo started….
The first few days of chemo will see Levi getting a particularly harsh drug that they expect adverse reactions with, so much so that they keep a nurse in the room during the 2 hour administration of the drug. It was a little rough though he managed to sleep through majority of the treatment. He woke at the tale end of the treatment and decided to demonstrate his projectile abilities as he wasn’t a fan of the vomit bag.
Fortunately Jude was happy to entertain himself in his cot with the occasional squeal for his mum to poke her head in, we are just so grateful that he loves his toes.
It was only when his first round of chemo was finalised that he decided to record a temperature above 38 degrees, which is the magic number which makes any medical professional nervous when they see that figure in a patient with a central line having chemo. So it was 30 minute observations for the little guy for the rest of the day. In the later part of the afternoon Levi was much brighter, we managed to secure some Play doh and a wooden train set from the Play Therapist to try and make the side effects of the Chemo more bearable for Levi and it seemed to work.
At around 8:30pm Levi’s temperature dropped into the low 37’s, his breathing, heart rate and blood pressure all began fall back into the normal range. Blood culture were taken and it will be around 48hours before we find out if it was the chemo or an infection that caused the abnormal spike. So far Levi is one for one in his chemo treatments and although I would say we are not looking forward to his second round, he is trooping through the process.