Reiss: DI drama! Weeks 1-3

Can we all agree that this phase, delayed intensification, SUCKS!!! It was rough for little Presley, and it has been so rough on little Reiss, as well. DI consists of 2 parts. He is in the 2nd part of this phase.

Week 1- Had to have a LP (Lumbar Puncture). He woke up from anesthesia a little croupy. They made him stay the night so they could monitor him.

Week 2- He was supposed to have another LP, but because we was a little croupy the previous week they decided to wait and make it up later. He had home health Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Week 3- On Monday, Oct. 7, he had to start his PEG shots again, and if you remember, this means trips to Primary Children's every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for two weeks. This is a dreaded two weeks. Too much driving, too many shots, too many trips to clinic. :( As if that isn't hard enough, Reiss spiked a fever after his clinic visit on Wednesday night. Besides his counts being super low, he seemed fine earlier when he was at his appointment. Shortly after Amber got back home, and started getting the kids to bed, she realized he was warm. A fever of 101 sent him straight to the hospital in Price. Price Hospital isn't use to these cancer kids and their low numbers. They ended up taking him back to PCMC by ambulance that night. It was a very long night and they didn't get into a room until about 7am.

Ambulance ride... He slept through it!

Reiss spent the rest of the week in the hospital. There were a few bumps during his stay. Thursday night, while at PCMC, his port started hurting. He had somehow dislodged the needle. They had to de-access and re-access his port. On the third time they were able to get it to work. Friday night, Amber snuck away from the hospital to take Amiah and Tayger to a play. Granny came to stay with Reiss.

At about 11 pm, Reiss woke up and was hysterical and wanted his mom. Luckily, Amber was near the hospital and rushed over. They gave him a transfusion, and he had an allergic reaction to the platelets. Poor little boy!

Allergic Reaction from the platelets. He will now receive benadryl before transfusions to prevent this reaction.

On Saturday they were supposed to be discharged around 3:00 after his last dose of antibiotic. Amber requested them to get the order into the home health med place so their bulbs of IV antibiotic would be ready. Long story short, they forgot and the meds didn't arrive until much later. So they didn't end up leaving PCMC until later that evening. They went to Heber and stayed their for the night. During his last antibiotic that night, Amber couldn't get the saline to push through his port. The antibiotic went fine, but she wasn't able to flush it. Another call into PCMC. They told her to cap it and then try in the morning. If it wouldn't work she would need to take him back in. The next morning (Sunday), she tried to flush it and it still wouldn't go. So back down to SLC they went to try and figure it out. Again they had to de-access and re-access 3 times to finally get it working! Poor little guy!