Saturday, July 5, 2008

Wednesday Night... another night in the ER

Everything was going so well. Ashley's ANC number was really high. Unbelieveably high at 1748. She was 9 days post cisplatin chemotherapy and last time at 9 days, her ANC was about 685. Her red blood and platelet counts were high enough to avoid transfusion again. Then it hit the fan. She woke from her nap at 3:30 and I noticed her foot looked red and it was pretty hot to the touch. I called the doc's and they said to just keep an eye on it and if I were afraid I could bring her into the ER. Tony got home around 5 and when I asked him to look at her foot he thought it looked normal. Then around 7 pm I marked her foot where the redness was and the swelling. And now she wasn't walking on it. Within a few minutes Tony thought the redness and swelling were expanding. So... Off to Children's. Sure enough the Doc's looked baffled. There was no entry wound like she jabbed it on something, but she wouldn't walk on it and it was clearly hot to the touch, red and swollen. So they decided we could give her antibiotics or wait until our normal Oncology appointment in the morning. We decided to go ahead with the antibiotics. We got to the ER around 8 pm and left at 12:30. Our future doctor daughter Whitney came to the ER too. She was just in "Awe" of watching all the doc's do things to Ashley. She truly wants to be a doctor some day. Tony took Whitney home from the ER around 11pm and I stayed with Ashley. By 9 am the next morning the swelling, hotness and redness were gone and I was able to see what may have happened. I think she might have gotten a spider bite. There was a pinhead sized read mark on the bottom of her foot. Right in the middle. We couldn't see it before because it was so swollen and red.

So during our regular Oncology appointment we were given a prescription for at home antibiotics to be given through her port IV. Tony is on duty again through Monday to administer meds through her port. Her ANC numbers reached 2795 and when I asked the Doc's why it was so high, they replied, "She's probably fighting something".

It is now Saturday morning and Ashley seems normal again. No more swelling and she's running around the back yard. Tony read someplace that a cancer patient got a spider bite and it kicked their immune system into overdrive and thus killed the cancer. I can only hope that is what happened to Ashley. It sure would explain why her ANC numbers reached 2795 on Wed evening in the ER. -- April

PS - Happy July 4th. We built a fire in the fire pit and made s'mores. Tony and Whitney watched the Kenmore fireworks from our bedroom deck.

2 comments:

Crystal Thomas said...

Wow, what a crazy ordeal! I'm glad to hear that it resolved itself without further incident. And who knows, maybe it actually helped! It sounds like you're all doing pretty well, but please let us know if there's anything we can do to help these days!

Teacher Susan said...

Hi Nakata Family - I'm so glad to hear about the fun things like making s'mores and drawing with side-walk chalk that you are including in your life. The red swollen foot sounds like it was scary. Keep up the great nursing, Tony! Hugs to all, Teacher Susan