Mirrored from http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/danieljmiller/journal
No piggy flu here!
Written by Andrea Miller
Quick update on Daniel. He was put into quarantine at Riley pending the outcome of the cultures taken for bacterial and viral infections. This meant we also had to be in a gown, mask and gloves the whole time we were with him in the room. REALLY was not comfortable. Don't know how Tim did it sleeping in that.
He was released late Sunday afternoon as the bacterial cultures had not grown anything during the 24 hr time period needed. He is still coughing and tired. His hair, which had pretty much grown back, is now falling out by the fistful. His counts are still very low, but beginning to make a gradual come back. His clinic apt. for this week was canceled since it was count dependent and was very unlikely his would be anywhere near the min.needed to begin the 2nd half of this phase of treatment.
Today Tim got a message from his Dr. that they did get a positive culture on the viral test. He has Parainfluenza - mild case of the flu (go here for description:
He was released late Sunday afternoon as the bacterial cultures had not grown anything during the 24 hr time period needed. He is still coughing and tired. His hair, which had pretty much grown back, is now falling out by the fistful. His counts are still very low, but beginning to make a gradual come back. His clinic apt. for this week was canceled since it was count dependent and was very unlikely his would be anywhere near the min.needed to begin the 2nd half of this phase of treatment.
Today Tim got a message from his Dr. that they did get a positive culture on the viral test. He has Parainfluenza - mild case of the flu (go here for description:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002346 )
The description of his symptoms is right on target. We are so thankful that he did not have the new strain of Swine Flu that they have been seeing at Riley. There is no treatment for this, other than just watching to be sure cough doesn't worsen, temp doesn't go up again, or any other symptoms develop. I too seem to have caught the same thing as I've been coughing a lot and had a runny nose and achy.
He'll be very limited on activities as we minimize his exposure during recovery from this, as well as not expose any others to it. Thanks again to everyone who has been praying for him and us.
The description of his symptoms is right on target. We are so thankful that he did not have the new strain of Swine Flu that they have been seeing at Riley. There is no treatment for this, other than just watching to be sure cough doesn't worsen, temp doesn't go up again, or any other symptoms develop. I too seem to have caught the same thing as I've been coughing a lot and had a runny nose and achy.
He'll be very limited on activities as we minimize his exposure during recovery from this, as well as not expose any others to it. Thanks again to everyone who has been praying for him and us.
Adding my own thoughts (Tim):
It was indeed a rough weekend at the hospital having to constantly be dressed in full gown, mask, & gloves - even sleeping that way. Thankfully, Daniel's symptoms didn't worsen over the weekend. Unfortunately, they haven't really gotten much better either. And now it appears Andrea has it and it's trying to get me. I felt lousy all day but trying to kick its butt with lotsa vitamins, good food & rest. Usually I can stave off such things, but we'll see, the stress of recent events at home & work doesn't help.
It's been rough watching Daniel turn back around and start losing all his hair again ... really fast! It's everywhere and gets him really frustrated too find hand-fulls on his pillows and clothes. The doctor said it takes about a month after a particular chemo treatment before it actually starts making hair fall out, so we're seeing the effects of something he had a month ago - probably a drug called Doxorubicen, but even the doc wasn't 100% sure. He had three treatments with the last one having been as recent as 8/1. So if the effects don't show up for a month, then all we're seeing now was just from the very first one. So we're not holding out a lot of hope of keeping any of his hair this time. He actually had 4 treatments at the start of all this back in January and he only lost about 1/2 or 2/3 of his hair. But he's been through a lot more leading up to this time and some of the nurses have said it's common to lose it all on the 2nd round. We'll see. That will be hard on him.
During the stay in the hospital, Daniel discovered a WW-II video game they had for the Play Station 3 in his room that he really liked. I bought him a used copy for his Wii at home as his "prize" for having had to be admitted (we always try to reward his bravery with a gift of some kind when he has to be admitted - it has helped a LOT to have something positive to look forward too.) So he's REALLY been enjoying this game since we got home, and after 10 years of pestering from Dad, he's finally interested in something having to do with WW-II (a huge hobby / interest of mine). So of course I've been capitalizing on this big time and it's been a lot of fun for us in the evenings alternating between watching old WW-II movies and playing his new game on the Wii. :-) Any moments of "fun" (not to mention togetherness) we can pull out of all the bad things going on in his life right now, I latch onto with both hands!
As Andrea described, we've delayed the start of the 2nd half of this final intensive phase for at least a week. One last big push - about a month's worth - and we'll be into the Maintenance phase. Even that's nothing particularly easy, but it's a lot better than what we've been through and, hopefully, will become routine fairly quickly.
As always, we so VERY much appreciate your thoughts and prayers. And we ESPECIALLY appreciated the entire Horizon Youth group dropping by on Sunday just as Daniel & I were coming home from the hospital. They helped with cleaning the house and lots of yard work. Please keep all of us in your prayers to get past the flu invasion at our place quickly, and for Daniel to get through this last month of intensive chemo as quickly and courageously as possible. And of course, our standing prayer requests are always for complete healing, no complications, and for God to be glorified in all of this.
Please also remember to be praying for Joey, Elizabeth, and Nick Keller and to keep up with their CaringBridge site as well: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/joeykeller
Grace and Peace to all,
- Tim -
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