Saturday, March 26th: Leela is back home. Not only is she home, but she is feeling great. It is the first time since the chemotherapy a week ago that she seems back to herself.
It has been a real roller coaster ride these past four days. On Wednesday Leela seemed tired but on her way up. Her white blood cell counts were up quite a bit on Thursday morning, so with no fevers since her admission to the hospital, the doctors sent her home.
Upon arriving home she seemed as fatigued as ever. All she wanted to do was lie on the living room sofa. A little while later she felt warm to us. We measured a temperature of 99.9 under her arm, which for kids on chemo is high enough to trigger a call to the hospital and almost always a visit to the clinic or the emergency room if the clinic is closed.
Once in the emergency room of the hospital Leela’s fever had mysteriously vanished. But for the fact that Leela's white blood cell counts fell by more than half she would have been sent home. So once again Leela was admitted to the hospital. She had been out for only a few hours.
Leela’s counts Friday morning were down even further, but her level of activity was much better. In fact, she seemed to be better than any other day since she received chemotherapy. The attending physician on service told us to expect a longer stay this time since she expected Leela’s counts to continue to fall for a couple of days and Leela should stay until her counts were “high” for at least two days.
However, Leela’s Saturday morning test showed an increase and so the doctors sent us home. When home, Leela had no interest in lying down. Instead, Leela and Maya celebrated Leela’s return home by driving their parents crazy with all kinds of shenanigans. It is great to see Leela back to herself.
click here for an explanation of why chemotherapy affects blood counts.