Day +8

It's been an eventful couple of days.  After figuring out what Clara's allergy was, we thought things would go back to normal.

Unfortunately, I think we are now at the beginning of a lot of difficult times.  Clara's heart rate increased significantly over the course of the day yesterday from around 130s to as high as 215.  Every nurse was telling us it was probably a fever coming - which it was.  But there was a flurry of concern and ruling out of bigger problems by getting a chest x-ray and and EKG late last night while the BMT doctors were gone and only the hospitalist was here to make diagnostic calls.  She also had an allergic reaction again earlier in the day, this time to platelets. She is also seeming to need more pain meds.  Despite being on a continuous infusion of a low level of dilaudid, we are still having to push the button to give her a bit more.  The doctors increased her continuous rate in the past hour so hopefully we will see an improvement in her demeanor.

For the most part, she was happy and playful yesterday - when she was awake.  But with increased dilaudid doses and a significant amount of benadryl again, she is sleeping a lot or is in a bit of a funky "I want to be awake but I'm tired" state.

The saga continues as she just had diarrhea and broke out into a rash again - during today's platelet transfusion (while I am in the middle of writing this post).

Thank goodness we have Clara's "bye-bye" nurse - who shall now be named: Cassi.  She knows Clara so well, that I can really trouble shoot with her and try to figure out what is happening.  She knows when to alert the doctors or when to just watch and wait to see if some cause surfaces out of the sea of symptoms.  She asks me for input and advises when I need it.  She keeps me calm and steady and I trust her. Thank you, Cassi!

For now, I will sign off with the message that this isn't fun, she isn't feeling well, she is getting so many medications, BUT it could be sooooo much worse.  I hear from another trusted nurse that she thinks Days 8-20 are the hardest.  So, let's begin that new countdown; shall we?  Thus far it's mainly pain management and allergy management.  We can handle that even if it is confusing and scares us that it might be signs of something worse.  So far it isn't the worst.  So we stay thankful and hope the "worst" stays away.