Amused by rubber glove shoes 🙂

Hello all – we know a lot of folks don’t use Facebook, where we post most updates on Sally, so just wanted to drop a quick blog post about Sally being admitted today for a bacterial infection in her central line. We had to bring her in to get checked out yesterday after she spiked a fever. They gave her antibiotics and sent her home, however our son Thomas came in at 6:15am this morning to tell me that our house phone kept ringing. I checked my cell phone which had a message from the hospital saying that her blood cultures grew bacteria and we had to bring her in right away to get started on more antibiotics.

Nurse Wheezy explaining next steps for treating the infection.

As background, for the last few weeks Sally has had explosive diarrhea that even a diaper with a combine inside can’t contain. She’s been having these several times a day, sometimes totaling in the double digits and most requiring a wardrobe change.We don’t have a washer/dryer, luckily our friend and neighbor Amy has been washing loads of Sally’s vomit/poop covered clothes for us when we get behind. We think these GI issues stem from a combination of the Bactrum anti-pneumonia meds she was temporarily on (which we successfully campaigned to get her switched back to her old meds), the chemo, and finally the numerous antibiotics she received last time she was admitted a few weeks ago. The doctors also think the Neuro virus Sally had months ago is playing a role.

Sally has a line in her back that is used to pull blood samples, give IV fluids and most importantly is what she receives her chemo through. The line need to remain clean and dry at all times, when we give Sally a bath we have to cover it in plastic. We typically keep the ends of the line tucked in the front of her diaper between the folds so it is secure and is the safest place from poop or other infecting things, and never had a problem in her first year of treatment. A few weeks ago Sally was admitted for an E. coli infection in her line after it somehow managed to come into contact with one of her stools.

You can see Sally’s central line here, which we keep protected from the water with the plastic. The line was infected by coming into contact with Sally’s stool.

With all of the diarrhea she’s had recently, her lines have been coming into contact with her stools despite our best efforts to avoid it. When it happens, we immediately disinfect them and change out the ends with fresh caps. We’re not surprised that her line became infected due to the messy stools she’s having, and are speaking with the Team to figure out how to secure her line elsewhere that is safer, and potentially cover it to add a barrier to avoid this in the future. The Team also wants us to consider switching Sally away from a line and to a port, which is what most kids have but would require surgery and involve a lot of challenges and complications that we want to avoid. It will be a conversation for another day, after we get Sally through this. Plus, it doesn’t remedy the issue of Sally’s GI issues, which needs to be addressed. Switching to a port and not treating the GI issues is like putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound.

We are still waiting for tests to come back, but she has what is referred to as a gram negative bacterial infection, which is more serious than a gram positive. Mine and Nicole’s guts tell us it will be another E. coli infection, with the Team telling us to expect to be admitted through the holiday weekend at least, maybe longer depending on the results. I just spoke to Nicole and Sally still has a room in the day hospital as the main in-patient side is full with patients and more waiting for a room to open up. We were told we may get a room around 1am, but will likely pass on it if Sally is sleeping. She has not had much sleep the last few days, likely from a combination of the steroids and the side effects of this infection, so don’t want to disturb her. It may mean we’re stuck in the day hospital side, but know there are sicker kids that need the inpatient rooms more than we do.

Nurse Kerry playing peel-a-boo with Sally while waiting for results.

Luckily, her counts are on their way up which will help fight the infection off, and she hasn’t had a fever since yesterday. If the other tests come back clean, hopefully Sally will be home in a couple days and we’re all under the same roof again. In the meantime we aim to keep Thomas and William busy, and work out logistics for Nicole to be at her friend Chrissy’s wedding on Sunday which she is in and has been looking forward to. Life for the Kabel family goes on, cancer won’t stop us.

The one good thing about being admitted on a Friday night – a candy cart comes around for all the kids and parents which they can take as much as they want.

Please keep Sally in your thoughts and prayers.

Matt