Sounds very scary and technical, huh? Well, this is just a fancy term that means Billy's white blood cell count is extremely low and he needs to be extra careful about being around germs. When we had his blood work done yesterday, it was 1.1 (or 1100). Once his doctor found this out, he decided to admit Billy until his count is back up. I've learned over the past few days that if a person's white blood cell count is low, their body cannot fight off illnesses or infections. For example, Billy had a sore on his gum in the back of his mouth (which is common in chemo patients). Ordinarily something like that would have healed up in a few days but apparently that sore is the culprit of his fever and his headache. Because his wbc count is so low, that little sore got infected. That evidently caused the fever he was running over the weekend and his awful headache he's had since Friday. Since he has been here they have been giving him antibiotics and they appear to be working. Gradually, the pain in his face, neck and head has eased today. They are also giving him a drug that will increase his white blood cells. This will take a few days to get his wbc's back up to normal.
The good news is the chest x-ray was negative! Praise God! His doctor also wanted to do a CT scan on his head just to be sure his headache wasn't the result of something more serious. The resident came in as I was writing the first paragraph to let us know that the "preliminary" results of the CT scan on Billy's head are good. Praise God, Praise God!!!
I will be able to communicate with you all via email while we are here. I don't answer my phone if Billy is sleeping b/c my talking wakes him up. Through email, I can maintain my contact with the outside world without disturbing him. As always, we thank you for praying without ceasing!
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