Almost Made It!!

We almost made it to the end without something serious happening! However, we couldn't be in a better hospital. Ben is in good hands!! There may be several of you who do not know that Ben was admitted to Cincinnati Children's on Tuesday afteroon so I will update his blog for you too and hopefully piece together all the information for you. On Thursday the 16th Ben had his monthly Chemo treatment in Cincinnati. Everything went well and we went home with great expectations of the coming week. We had already had Ben's Kindergarten Orientation on the 14th and it went really well. Ben was looking forward to being a Chancey Cardinal this year!! On Friday the 18th Ben told us he had a headache, but I really just thought that he was really tired and over excited about Kindergarten starting the next tuesday. I worked on Saturday and when I got home Ben had another headache and was laying quietly on the couch. Matt was getting ready for his shift at the fire department that night and was just about to leave when I realized Ben had a low-grade fever. So Matt called in so he could stay home with Ollie and I packed a bag and took Ben to the local Emergency Room. When we got there they accessed his port and drew blood for CBCs and to start a culture. Ben's fever broke on it's own so no Tylenol was given. They gave him Rocephen to start treating for the fever. On Sunday the fever did not return so we went forward with our plans for the week. I went to work on Monday and afterwards took the kids shopping to buy Ben's lunches for his first week of school. We had an uneventful evening and went to bed early. On Tuesday morning I woke up the kids and began getting Olivia ready for daycare and Ben ready for his first day of school. Ben went in to use the bathroom and almost immediately started crying that his head hurt really bad. He is really not a complainer even when he feels horrible and so I knew he really wasn't feeling good. I took his temperature and sure enough he had a fever again. I called the Dr. in Cincinnati and was told to take him back to the local E.R. As soon as I told Matt that I was taking Ben Olivia jumped up and ran into her room and packed him a big bag full of toys!! Sweet girl, I love her!! I got Ben to the E.R. and they took drew for CBCs and cultures again. At this time they checked his cultures from Saturday and discovered that there was a growth present. It was to soon to tell what it was but it was enough for Cinci to decide to bring him up regardless that his ANC was over 4000 both Saturday and now. But at least because his counts were higher I was aloud to drive him up in my car instead of being transported by ambulance. When we got to Cincinnati they re-drew his CBCs and cultures and started ben on vancomycin and zosin, two very strong broad-spectrum anti-biotics. They let me know that they were concerned that the culture taken on saturday was contaminated because it did not grow anything in the first two days. Also they let me know that the newer cultures may not grow anything because he was already given anti-biotics on saturday. The big concern was meningitis. The big signal of this was the fact that Ben was having an excrutiating headache. Ben has never had headaches before so this was a concern. Ben's headaches at this point were so bad they had to shut the blind on the window and turn off all the lights and he still was putting his blanket and pillow over his face. Sensitivity to light is also a sign of meningitis. They spent most of the day discussing the need for a Spinal tap with me and deciding if it was going to be helpful. Because Ben was already given anti-biotics on saturday the cultures from the spinal fluid might not grow anything. However they knew that if they found any white blood cells in the spinal fluid it would confirm that he has an infection in the spinal column. If there were mostly neutriphil white cells that would indicate a bacterial infection. If there were mostly lymphocyte white cells that would indidcate a viral infection. They ultimately decided that the good outweighed the bad and that a spinal tap would be done in the morning. Yesterday Ben had a Spinal Tap at about 12:15pm. At about 2ish the Dr.s came in and said that they believed Ben had Bacterial Meningitis. His Spinal fluid was full of white blood cells that were mostly neutriphils. They do not believe that the culture from the Spinal fluid will grow anything because of the anti-biotics that were already administered but they will continue to check it to be sure. They let me know to expect to be here at Cinci for 14 to 21 days at least. This is how long they will continue the anti-biotics to take care of the meningitis. Today the bacteria in the culture finally grew enough to give them a Genus name. It is corynebacterium. This is a bacteria normally found on skin. They do not believe that this is what is in his spinal fluid. This is either a contaminate that happened during the collection process or a grouping of this bacteria near his port entry. They still are waiting for the culture to grow enough to give it a Species name. There are some really bad types of this bacteria that are really scary and there are some that are not as worrysome. Please continue to pray that it will not turn out to be one of the really bad ones. This is still a pretty big concern to the infectious disease people. However, even with this news they are still feeling very confident that this is not causing Ben's fever and headaches and are not changing course in his treatment for meningitis. I do trust them completely and they are really doing there best to take care of Ben and get him well. So we are going to be here for two to three weeks from this last Tuesday. There is a school teacher that works at the hospital who will do school with Ben every day. This is a blessing in the fact that he is already going stir crazy from being confined to his room and it will give him something to do every day!! I have applied for FMLA at work so I can stay here with Ben without risk of losing my job. My managers are really great and are giving me lots of encouragement. They even were really great to Matt when he went in yesterday. I am so blessed not just to have amazing family and friends, but to also have a great work family too is an awesome thing!! Ben was able to Skype with Olivia, Matt and Rita( grandma), Olivia wouldn't let anyone get a word in!! Just like her mama!!!! Ben also was able to talk with David (grandpa) on the phone and Mike( grandpa), Claudia(grandma), Uncle Zach and Cousin Savannah. This was very exciting for him and very uplifiting. I could tell he felt better after talking to them. Unfortunately his headache has returned and it is making it hard for him to go to sleep. They are trying oxycodone first because the morphine keeps him awake. Hopefully he will be able to go to sleep soon. Just a funny note: Ben loves Morphine!! It makes him very giddy and he is very entertaining. He asked his Poppy (grandpa-mike) "Poppy do you love Morphine?" and my dad said "Yes I do" and Ben replied with a big goofy grin "Me Too." After we got off the phone Ben told me "Mom, I love it and I think everyone should try it at least once" -----Yes God gives us funny moments even in hard times---- Jamie