Day 35: Back Down

It  wasn't too much longer after I completed the last post that everything changed. Krista woke up at 1 am with a sore throat and a fever. We called the triage nurse at the City of Hope who asked about previous symptoms. They were particularly interested in the vomiting incident yesterday, and in the fever-less chills she felt the same day. Apparently these are all pointers that it's time to have them check her out. We had her in the car by 1:30 am, and almost as soon as she got in she had another instant vomit without warning. She felt a little better afterward and didn't have any incident afterward.  The freeways are amazingly empty at that time of night.  They ran labs on her and we rested a bit -- though rather uncomfortably.

Krista had been experiencing some rashing in the last few days, mainly around the chest and some of the forehead. Overnight, the rash grew to almost all over.  Her legs and forearms were particularly bad, but the chest and forehead were worse than we previously noticed. Oddly the back was not affected. The doctors couldn't detect any immediate signs of infection (though the longer-term growth tests haven't been developed yet). Also her platelets weren't unusually low, so the rash is not likely to be petichia (tiny dots that spontaneously appear when platelets are very low). The most likely guess is that the rash is due to GVHD and perhaps some kind of infection triggered it. They took a skin biopsy to verify, but again, we haven't yet heard the results.

Whatever the results come back as, Krista is going to be staying in the hospital for at least a couple of days - perhaps a week if necessary. This is really sad, as we had hoped to be able to have Thanksgiving together at home. So to make up for it, I got a hotel reservation for me and the boys down there. We'll head down tomorrow and spend a few days. We may not be able to cook but at least we'll be together!

Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
(Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)