My daughter, Haylee Kate, was diagnosed with APML Leukemia, which is a rare form, on November 21, 2011 at 8 years old. I thought this would be a good way for me to get my thoughts and feelings out and to let others know about her ups and downs throughout her treatment.

December 17, 2011

12/15/11 - Out for almost 48 hours

Well, we were re-admitted to the hospital today.  Haylee developed a fever this morning of 101.3 and they wanted us to come down to have labs drawn to find out what's going on.  She slept most of the way down to the clinic and in the clinic.  We waited for 2 hours.  Dr. Keller came in and said she wouldn't have to stay but if her blood cultures came back positive over the next 24-48 hours, then we would have to come back and be re-admitted.  Since she has been complaining about her wrist, he ordered a wrist x-ray which came back normal so he said it was probably related to the leukemia treatment and some of the other meds which can give some nerve pain. 
Once we got back from the x-ray and she got settled back on the table, she developed what they call a 'riger' (i'm not sure that's how you spell it!), which is when someone is given antibiotics for a bacterial infection, it begins to kill the bacteria but it releases toxins in the bloodstream causing uncontrollable shaking accompanied with being cold (like having really bad cold chills).  With that, usually within 30 minutes, a fever develops.  Since that happened, they decided to re-admit her because a riger is a tale-tell sign that she would have a positive blood culture (which she did but did not develop a fever after the riger).  She was NOT happy - she started screaming and crying.  I felt so bad for her!! They hooked her up to IV fluids and she was saying over and over, "I hate my life."  I started tearing up with her and did my best to explain to her that sometimes these things will happen and that we just have to deal with them as they come.  She finally calmed down and went back to sleep.  It was so hard for me to keep it together with her saying that.
She slept off and on all afternoon and early evening until about 8pm.  They started her on 2 antibiotics immediately along with her other pills.  She ate some dinner, got changed for bed, then pretty much went back to sleep around 10:30pm and slept all night.

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