Please pray for Pia today

This week has been boring. Thank God. They are always telling me here, "boring is good. Being the first one the doctor sees in the morning is not."  Boring means no fevers, no infections. So, this week Pia and I have just been trotting along, doing our own little routine each day. We get up, brush our teeth, make coffee, make a bottle of milk, the CNA comes in for vitals, the nurse listens to Pia and tells her how cute she is, we FaceTime with Max and Jd and Faith while we drink our coffee and milk (well more like just milk and then cold coffee later on because I tend to forget it's there), and then go about our day of playing and eating and napping. Every night we say a little prayer of thanksgiving for another boring day.

The reason they keep us in the hospital for so long after chemo treatments is because the blood counts and immune system slowly go down until zeroing out and the risk of infection goes up. Not only does Pia's immune system reach zero and could more easily pick up a virus and not be able to fight it off, but she can get bacterial infections more easily from her own internal flora. She can develop mouth sores (therefore the mouth brushings we do twice a day), rashes, yeast infections, and fevers (which could mean bacterial infections that need to be treated immediately). All week, everyone here has been waiting for Pia to hit zero neutrophils (immune fighting white blood cells) and waiting for a fever to pop up (indicating possible infection). I was seriously hoping for a get out of jail free card this cycle and a pass on infections since nothing so far.

And this afternoon, boom, a fever. Boring has now ended. They attend quickly to fevers here. Nurses come in, draw blood cultures from each lumen of her central line, phlebotomy comes in to draw blood from the vein, the attending resident checks Pia over, the hematologist/oncologist makes a visit to check her over again, they start antibiotics, and continue monitoring her fever while they wait and watch the blood cultures for any developing bacteria. It's all so fascinating.

Long story, short. Pia has a fever. Boo. Such as life with cancer though, I suppose. Please say a little prayer for her today when you read this. We hope it's nothing too serious and doesn't develop into something serious but you never know. Thank God for great healthcare professionals and a great hospital.