Where did summer go?

In record time, summer flew by and I find myself back at work. It was such a blessing to have all those weeks home with Cooper. I can’t complain, just wished I could stay home with her all year.

We had an exciting neutropenic summer. Cooper had 3 ER visits with one overnight stay. All three times she was running a fever over 101 with no other symptoms.

The first visit, her counts were 150. Normally the protocol is anything under 250 is an automatic stay overnight. However, since her fever had gone down, she was given antibiotics and we were sent home.

Almost a week later, she began running a fever again. This time her ANC was 1600. The doctor told us this was good news because obviously if she needs them, her neutrophils will be there. We were sent home after some antibiotics.

This past Friday, she was running a fever again. Her counts were 90, so we had to stay overnight. She was given IV antibiotics and we got a chest x-ray and blood cultures. Since they can not catheterize her, we got urine samples from cotton balls. They also did a flu test and RSV test. All came back normal, so we were released late afternoon.

Today she is ok, but did have a rash all over her body yesterday. Her doctor thinks it is related to whatever virus she had. I took this last visit pretty hard and feel so bad that my baby has to go through so many traumatizing events. I hope she will never remember all the pokes and shots.

The ironic thing, is that June 1st I started to transition my household to a more eco-friendly and organic home. Although I just think her illnesses were a coincidence, I feel a little silly. I am going to stick with it for now, and hope the long term effects of these changes will help Cooper.

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