Mostly I am writing this down just to get it out and put the last week behind us. You don't have to read it if you don't want to but I do need to write it.
On Tuesday of last week our 3 year old was bouncing around as usual, playing, eating, running, laughing. We set off in the afternoon on the 2 1/2 hour journey to DH's parents house and when we got there she was asleep...no real surprise until I picked her up and thought gosh she got hot and sweaty on the trip.
In we go and DD is just sitting limply on me as I strip her down still not particularly worried...she felt hot but not unusually for a long car trip.
Over the next hour she got hotter and hotter and hotter. DH's parents are in the back of nowhere and I still wasn't really worried...I thought oh it is a virus what a pain to get it when we are here but I gave her some pamol when the temp hit 39, sat near the air con (is Summer here) and bathed her with luke warm flannels. About an hour after the pamol she picked up enough to play on the floor, quiet but happy.
Roll on to bed time and she is about 38.5 so I put her to bed with a light sheet and monitor her until I go to bed. She wakes screaming at 4 in the morning and temp is back up to 39.7. I give her more pamol and she settles on my knee but temp doesn't really drop much. As soon as is safe I give her another dose (ie 8am by then) and this time it drops to 37.
DH and I decide that while she is in the normal range it may pay to head back home and monitor her on the trip.
She managed the trip home pretty well, she slept the whole way but temp only went 38.
Pop her on the couch to unpack which takes about 20 minutes and when I check her she looks really hot. We decide to see if we can get a doctors appointment and manage to get one in 1/2 hours time.
Get to doctor, temp has shot up to 40.1. Doctor takes one look and says ok I think you should go in to hospital just to be on the safe side.
By the time we reach hospital temp is risen further and hits 41 she is limp and quiet frankly terrifying to look at.
We are admitted, she is hooked up to more things than I even knew existed and they take some bloods. When the results came back things got a whole lot scarier. DD had such low white cell count that she was immediately put into protective isolation and we are told that whatever has hit her has left her with no ability to fight anything.
Fast foward the next few days and her blood count is getting worse, temp is aggressive, they put her on a high strength antibiotic as even though they don't know what has hit her they want to give her some chance of fighting anything else that may waltz in while she is so prone to infection, she is one very sick little girl. They book us in for a bone marrow sample for the following Tuesday. We very stressed and scared.
Friday out of the blue she turns a corner, she is more alert, temp is coming down under 40, bloods show that the neutrophils are down further but that the WBC count is up overall and this is the first trend up we have seen.
Friday nite her temp drops further and fluctuates between 37.9 at the lowest and 39.1 at the highest...the lowest temps we have seen in days.
Sat morning she is able to sit up and manages her first bite of food (literally) since we got to the hospital. Sat bloods came back with an upward trend for pretty much everything but still not in the normal range but hey upwards is good. By Sat afternoon, she was able to have catheter out and get wheeled around in a wheelchair with the drip trolley (now driving that is a lesson and a half!!!). She has had no temps over 37.9 since Friday afternoon in fact they have all been NORMAL!!!!!. They tell us that if Sunday bloods show the same trend and she is starting to drink and eat on her own then we will be allowed home for the night.
So here we are HOME!!!. We will go back in the morning for more bloods as the WBD and Neutrophils are still not in normal range. If those are clear then we can stay home and manage her care from here and not go back until next week when they will recheck to make sure they are still trending up.