The Fever Hit!

We loaded up a febrile Cameron last night around 11:30 and headed back to Duke.  He was miserable with stomach pain.  I stayed in the ER until about 2am and then came home for a few hours of sleep.  After I left, a CT of Cameron’s tummy was ordered, which meant contrast to drink.  Poor Ernest had the wonderful task of getting that in him at 4am.  The CT was done and we were told all was well…or was it.  I relieved Ernest around 10am and as the day progressed, Cameron’s fever got worse and his pain did as well.  I called for the resident who simply wanted to give him Tums and wait till tomorrow to talk to Dr. G.  Apparently all the new docs are scared to page Dr. G or something.  I, as before, did not accept this scenario and paged the nurse practitioner myself.  She was ill that Cameron was in such pain and there was no plan for resolution and immediately called Dr. G.  Well, when he pulled the CT, surprise surprise, Cameron had esophagitis which is an inflammation of the lining of the esophagus.  I’m not shocked because I’ve been trying to tell the residents since round one that his tummy pain was NOT nausea but nobody seemed to listen.  So now we sit with a fever of 103-104, three antibiotics, one antifungal, morphine, and nausea medications.  I suspect if things do not improve, Cameron will be moved to the PICU so that he can be more closely monitored; time will tell.

 

The great news, however, is that his fever caused them to finally find out what had been hurting.  I hate sitting in the hospital but I praise God that he allowed the fever so that the esophagitis could be discovered.  Furthermore, all the “pre-third round chemo” testing has been moved to next week so we can get things done while we are in the hospital.  I am absolutely stoked about this because once we are discharged, we get to go home and will not be running back and forth to Duke everyday.  And the other praise, Cameron will actually have four weeks between cycles two and three due to Dr. G being out of town.  He doesn’t want to have Cameron receiving chemo when he is not around (Geez…I can’t imagine why)!  So yes we are back and will be there for a while but looks like they are FINALLY on the road to helping little man’s tummy.  Please continue to pray that his fever will come down and he will start responding to the medications.  And also pray for Ernest and I; we are absolutely exhausted.