Where Everybody Knows Your Name

As we stepped off the elevator yesterday all the nurses started saying hello as we walked down the hall; the Cheers theme song played over and over in my head. But in this case we had to go where everybody knew our names, and they are never glad we came.

This was not a planned trip to the hospital. Liam had spots on his belly, the doctor had seen them earlier in the week but was not concerned. We were told to watch them. When Liam woke up Saturday morning one looked especially bad.

We don't really have answers to what it was. The doctor did a culture of the site and a blood culture. Neither have grown any bacteria so that is a good. Liam did have a fever of 101.5 last night. He is on a few antibiodics; fighting some sort of infection.

Another thing we discovered yesterday was his ANC was zero. ANC, absolute neutrophil count, is the measure of white blood cells that fight infection. As said in the post Numbers Liam's ANC needs to be over 750 to begin Chemo. Anything under 500 nurses need to take neutropenic precautions; masks and gowns before entering the room.

Liam was set to begin his 4th cycle of chemo on Tuesday; that will be delayed now. His resection surgery was scheduled for February 28th; that will depend on when he begins his 4th cycle.