Spiked!

Good things often come to an end. The record setting ended with the spike of an early morning fever. For a healthy person it was low, 100.4 degrees F, but a fever nonetheless. A fever can be serious with no immune system; it means the body is trying to fight something. William has nothing with which to fight. Antibiotics were added to his weighty looking I.V. pole and blood was drawn for cultures. His oxygen saturation also went down and a tube blowing oxygen was added next to his pillow. The morphine granting button was increased again and he received his first platelet transfusion since transplant. Baldness is also in his near future with the first short, fine hairs showing up on his pillow. William is now in the comfortable category of "typical". Typical works for us.

The favorite gizmo is the suction stick. Think suction thing at the dentist only bigger. He's experimented all evening with the speed of varying fluids, i.e., spit vs. water vs. sodium bicarbonate, vs. mouthwash. Water is the fastest, but the mouthwash turns the collection canister blue! The nurse just asked that he not try red Gatorade. Agreed.

William's goal tonight is to keep the fevers at bay. My goal tonight is to sleep through all the beeping pumps.