Bad Dad!

I felt fine over the weekend, but started to feel a little weak Sunday. I thought it was just my body still recovering from the hospital. I drank some water and took a nap and felt better after the nap. However, I was too weak to cook dinner so I coached Mike as he made Hamburger Helper. That evening I developed a cough and when we went to bed at 11pm, Mike insisted that I take my temperature because the cough concerned him. Imagine my surprise when the thermometer registered 102.3! I called NIH immediately and the doctor on call insisted I come in so they could take a blood test and determine if I was still neutropenic. I shouldn't have been because my ANC was 1,000 and I'd have to be below 500 to be neutropenic.


We arrived at NIH at midnight and it took a while for them to do the blood work and the nurse who was doing it wasn't exactly instilling confidence in me or Mike. She kept tapping my arm looking for a good vein and after several minutes, I asked if she wanted to look at my left arm. Mike was just about to insist that she leave when she found a good vein. I let her go ahead with the stick and she was much better than I expected. Unfortunately, we had to wait a while for the results. Around 1am we heard the charge nurse yell, "Oh my gosh, they're 12,000!" We knew she was talking about me and I definitely wasn't neutropenic. The doctor came by later and said they would give me Tylenol to bring the fever down and send me home. We arrived home at 2am and went straight to sleep.

I woke up early Monday morning and this morning drenched in sweat and I had soaked through my sheets and comforter. I managed to put down a towel underneath me to cover up the dampness and sleep with a towel above me as my sheet. The sweating meant that my fever had broken (thanks to the Tylenol), but I couldn't sleep very well because I was soaking wet. I don't really like going through the "Tylenol cycle" because at first I freeze, then I burn up with heat, and then an hour later I sweat buckets.

My blood cultures came back negative and the doctors all think it's a cold that will go away eventually. I just have to drink plenty of fluids and take Tylenol for the fevers. Mike talked to Dad today and he went to the doctor with a fever of 101. Hmmm, my Nurse Practitioner and all of the NIH nurses are sure he gave this to me. He came to visit me last Tuesday at the hospital when I was neutropenic, but he probably didn't know he was coming down with something. Mom is in denial.

Just when I thought I was done being sick for a while...