BLAH ~ Fevers

I'll do my best to update, but I'm still feeling a bit groggy after my adventures in the ER last night. It started Friday night when I woke up soaking from head to toe with night sweats. I never, ever get night sweats, but I figured that I must have been warmer than usual due to this bit of Indian Summer that we have had here in Cleveland lately. I never took my temp. On Saturday I went to the farm and pumpkin patch with family for a fun-filled day! I was exausted when I arrived home and, once again, experienced night sweats in the middle of the night on Saturday.

It wasn't until Sunday afternoon, when my body started feeling achy, that I thought that it might be a good idea to take my temp. That's when I discovered my low grade fever...99.4. I always run low (in the 97's), so this was a legitimate fever. I checked my temp several more times during the day and the fever seemed to come and go. It's a very fickle little bugger.

So last night, after freezing my butt off all night and sleeping very little, I finally got up at 2am when the sweats started, to take my temp. It was 100.4. Not super alarming, but I immediately googled the PICC line procedures, knowing that fevers were of concern. In HUGE bold letters on the page I found it said that you must procede to the nearest emergency room immediately if you have a fever over 100. Ugh! All CF patients and CF momma's know that ER's are a huge waist of time for us. The staff don't typically understand our disease or needs. I called the pulminologist on call and made my best effort in convincing her that I really didn't need to go to the ER. It didn't work...so off to that germ-filled place I went...knowing that my job would be more educating them about what I needed them to do, then actually getting any information from them.

So Dr. NoPersonality walked in when I got to my room. He asked me what drugs I was on. When I told him about the 3 grams of Cifoxitin his eyes popped out of his head and he asked if I was sure that wasn't an error. I bought my next dose of IV's with me, so I pulled out the container and showed him the dosage information. By the way, all experienced CFer's know tha you need to bring your own drugs to the ER. Dr. NoPersonality then mumbled that he has never seen anyone on that high of a dose of IV Cefoxitin for this extended period of time. It was as if he was questioning my treatment plan. This guy, that I had to spell "Mycobacterium Abssessus" for was trying to make a judgement about my coarse of treatment. Maybe if he had a personality I would have thought this was just general conversation, but instead it came out more as judgement.

I proceeded to tell him that I needed labs and blood cultures drawn. I had to explain that I have a boarderline low white blood count, but that the cifoxitin has the potential to make this even lower. A normal white blood count is 4-11. If my white count is around 6 ot 7, that probably means I have a raging infection. So they drew blood cultures from the PICC and from a periferal vien so they could see if there is an infection in the line only or in the line and the blood. The blood cultures will take a day or two to grow, but the CBC showed that my white count is now 2. I am officially neutropenic and immuno-compromised. When is gets to 1.5 we start neupogen shots. I was hoping this wouldn't happen so quickly. There is a possiblilty it can bounce back, but it was frustrating to hear that it is at this point now. This does not mean that I don't have an infection, however.

They let me go around 6am and I followed up with Dr. Dazzle today. The ER doctor was absolutely convinced that I have a PICC infection, and that I need to get my line pulled ASAP. I'm not entirely convinced. I have little kids that are swarming with germs around me at all times. I think I probably have a virus. It makes more sense to me, since the boat load of antibiotics I'm on should really kill any infection I might get. Dr. Dazzle agrees with me. So, the plan is that we are going to wait for the blood culture results to come back. If my line is infected I will be admitted into the hospital, have my line pulled, get my IV's through a periferal IV for one day, then get a new PICC placed the next day. Oh, joy! How I love having PICC's place. Otherwise, I'm just going to ride out the fever...calling if it gets worse. If the fever does still last a few more days, I will get the PICC pulled anyway and go with the plan to have a new one placed. The fever has broken now, but I still feel like crud...fatiuge, muscle aches, etc... I'm just laying low for now.

CF is always an adventure!