PLEX #7 - Cancelled

After spiking to 38 celcius last night, the night resident doctor came in to assess the situation. Not knowing the back story, the nurse ordered blood to be cultured, antibiotics to be started, and a chest X-Ray just to be sure he hadn't caught anything. 

While I agree that chances cannot be taken, anyone who has followed Avery's charts may not have reacted the same way. 37.5  - 37.7  has been Avery's normal temperature at the hospital along with a high heart rate and high blood pressure. I tried to refuse, but understood that the Hospital could not take the chance.

The Dialysis unit (overbooked) ended up cancelling his PLEX treatment this morning using the fever and antibiotics as a scapegoat to get out of treatment. Of course, Avery has no fever, but just to be sure, he will be on antibiotics for 48 hrs until his blood cultures come back.

Overall; major improvement since starting PLEX has not been observed, so delaying treatment #7 until next Tuesday is not necessarily the end of the world. We will use these next 6 days to get him some rest and relaxation, as busy days have overcrowded recovery days. We hope that we can work on his small improvements and mood to start the rehabilitation process. We also feel the medicine mixture is appropriate and he's calm enough to work with now.

Avery's sleeping for longer stretches now, and this morning was able move his right arm purposefully, giving a high five or pointing to my nose.

Watching a suffering child and being unable to help really makes me feel helpless and trains me to rely more and more on God for strength during this time of suffering. Since there is no one else to turn to, Jesus is the only person I can cast my cares to or give my burdens to. Without being completely helpless we will not depend on Jesus; our human nature will take over and start generating solutions or seeking answers to our problems.

I'm reminded of two verses from the Bible:

1 Peter 5:7
 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Matthew 11:28-30:
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”