The Hospital Yo-Yo

Last week, Kameron suddenly started not feeling well and having chills. We watched him like a hawk and started measuring for a fever.

Last Friday early morning, he woke us up with sudden severe eye pain. We were able to get him calm enough to inspect his eye and saw that his corner eyelashes had curled inward and were scratching his eye. I was able to remove the problematic eyelashes, and while it was better, his eye pain somewhat persisted. He was able to see his eye doctor later that morning who confirmed he had scratched his cornea and gave him an antibiotic ointment. Between his scheduled physical therapy for his knee and an unexpected eye doctor appointment, he was pretty wiped out after that. Not to mention his low white blood cell count and platelets not helping his low energy. So he took a long nap after he got home. 

He woke up later that evening with 101.5 F temperature. We immediately called the on-call doctor who advised we take him to the ER for admission and an infection work-up. When he arrived at the ER his temperature shot up to 102.8 F and he was lightheaded with a low blood pressure of 87/63. They quickly whisked him back to an ER room for an immediate work-up and fluids. After a negative COVID test and chest xray, he was placed on IV antibiotics with labwork pending, and at 2 am on Saturday morning Kameron was admitted to the cancer floor. 

We still have no idea what caused it, but the moment he got the antibiotics his fever was gone, his blood pressure went back to normal, and his funny sassy humor was back. He has been having fun teasing and cracking jokes with the nurses. We also watched Good Burger to pass the time, one of his favorite movies that he frequently quotes.

The blood cultures were all negative (hallelujah.. the last thing he needs is a port infection!) He has had some medication side effects that have been super tough to manage and he has lost about 10 lbs. He remained in the hospital until home health for IV antibiotics could be arranged and his team of doctors could all round on him. Jesse has stepped up and learned how to give his IV antibiotics himself and was given two thumbs up by the nurses for his excellent skills. 

Kam got to be home for a couple days. During that time, the hair he was growing back fell out again. Kameron let Jesse shave most of his head to avoid having loose hair in his pillow and bedding. 

He was seen in the oncology clinic yesterday. He miraculously made counts and was admitted to the hospital yesterday for his next round (week #14 of 28) of chemotherapy. The next few weeks are grueling back to back treatments. Over the next 17 days he is likely to be in the hospital at least 12 of those days.

Please keep Kam in your prayers. He is experiencing some unpleasant side effects from his various medications, is losing weight, and he really hates being in the hospital. Please pray for our family as we have had some unexpected transitions lately and that has been additionally hard.