Monday, August 18th, 2008

Monday, August 18th, 2008 - Mattie is now neutropenic (also mentioned on top of the blog). This was confirmed based on our visit to the Clinic today and Mattie's blood being drawn. Neutropenia is when the white blood cell count drops below certain acceptable levels. When this occurs the body's first line of infection-fighting defenses (one of the three types of white blood cells) is impaired and cannot fight-off bacteria that are present within the body already or new bacterial infections. This can be a very serious condition as antibiotics need to be administered immediately upon the detection of a fever. As a result, Mattie cannot have any playdates and needs to avoid contact with anyone not feeling well or dealing with ill people as this increases the chances of Mattie being infected. Yet another awful and very isolating aspect of this disease.

Mattie did go to Clinic today and had a chance to play some with Jessie and Jenny, the art therapists. Appearing to be unplanned, Jessie and Jenny had a ceiling tile out in time for Mattie's arrival that just happened to have the five Scooby-Doo characters outlined on it (many of the ceiling tiles in the Clinic have been taken down at one point or another and hand-painted by the kids with all sorts of things). So, we spent the in-between time painting Shaggy, Scooby, Velma, Daphne and Freddy. Even Mommy and Daddy got in on the act (you can see Mommy and Mattie together painting on the right)! After Clinic we stopped at the Drive-Thru for a shake and a Happy Meal, and at CVS for another prescription. I can't remember what time it was but it was some time after 2:00pm before we got out of the Clinic. We also were seen by Dr. Snyder, one of the Hemonc Drs. in the practice, who was very nice. Although we had only ever said hello to her, Dr. Snyder spent a lot of time talking us through the aspects of Neutropenia, which was very helpful.

Once home, Mattie had another visitor, his former preschool teacher and family friend, Margaret Sharkey. Margaret brought Mattie a lot of neat things including a piece of "Pirate Booty" that she found along the beaches of North Carolina last week. Margaret (along with Lana) was Mattie's first preschool teacher at Resurrection Children's Center (RCC) and has become a true friend over the years. Thanks Margaret for the treats from the Dairy Godmother (not sure who is happier about that, Mattie or Vicki)! Also thanks for the wonderful window gel creatures.

Mattie had fun playing with Margaret but tired fairly quickly, which we have been noticing lately. The fatigue and tiredness are expected (along with the Neutropenia), but it seems like no matter how much we try to prepare ourselves, we are still never fully ready when it happens. Thanks go out to Christine Cooper who insisted on bringing us dinner tonight, but both Vicki and I waved her off since neither of us were up to eating after the afternoon's Drive-Thru experience.

We are now monitoring Mattie's temperature every hour (not fun with a boy who is non-compliant with much of what we ask these days) as fever is probably the only signal that Mattie has an infection. We have to be prepared to dash off to the hospital should his fever reach a sustained level of 100.4 for more than a two hour period. So here is hoping that we do not break triple digits in terms of Mattie's temperature. He is currently running a 99 degree fever.