A Spike

I’ve just got back from a night with Christian on the ward at St George’s so forgive me if this all comes out as a jumbled mess. All weekend Christian was very happy, eating and drinking well and generally having fun. Sunday night something hit him and he was throwing up during the night. He was due to go to The Royal Marsden for a checkup and some drugs to boost his white blood cell count on Monday so we went early and spent all day there. He had a slightly high temperature and he was given some antibiotics.

By the end of the day he seemed a bit better so we were sent home with the strict instructions to phone if his temperature “spiked” again. By 9.00pm his temperature was up to 38.7 and however hard I tapped the thermometer it wouldn’t go lower. As Claudia spent a lot of Sunday night up with Christian, I took him to the ST George’s Hospital.

He has now been given two more types of antibiotics until they get results of blood tests which show what particular bug he has. One of the concerns is that he may have either an infection in his portacath or the same infection has come back from a couple of weeks ago. If this is the case he may need to have an operation to have it replaced.

If, however, it is a different infection it may be treatable at home by either oral antibiotics or by once a day intravenous antibiotics that the community nurse would administer. The care at St George’s was very good last night and although it is not as comfortable as the Royal Marsden it wasn’t too bad.