2005 Journal Entries
| June 23rd - Archie is admitted to the Hospital. |
| June 24th - Thanks for your e-mails and phone calls. |
| June 26th - Archie is improving. |
| June 27th - Archie is acting himself. |
| June 28th - Archie is doing well. |
| June 29th - Dr. Hayes scheduled a bone marrow aspiration. |
| June 30th - The bone marrow aspiration brought good news today. |
| July 1st - Archie was very much himself today. |
| July 11th - Archie was readmitted to the hospital tonight. |
| July 13th - I am exhausted. |
| July 14th - Archie started chemotherapy today. |
| July 17th - Archie started his fourth day of chemotherapy. |
| July 19th - Archie has been so pleasant the past few days. |
| July 21st - Little Man continues to be a maverick. |
| July 25th - Archie may get to come home tomorrow. |
| July 26th - We came home today. For about three hours. |
| July 27th - Good news today. |
| July 31st - Archie spiked a fever Saturday afternoon. |
| August 1st - Back to the operating room. |
| August 9th - Going to see Dr. Stroud today. |
| August 21st - The Blue Screen of Death. |
| August 29th - Archie is doing really well. |
| September 11th - Kit came home from the Hospital. |
| September 27th - Archie got home from the hospital Saturday morning. |
| January 27th, 2006 - Although each day drags by, each month passes so quickly. |
| April 25th, 2006 - Meyer Center for Special Children. |
| July 1st, 2006 - Archie isn’t a baby anymore. |
| Archie spiked a fever Saturday afternoon |
| by Anne Moore 07/31/2005 |
Archie spiked a fever Saturday afternoon. The fever got as high as 102.5 degrees, and it took a
combination of both acetaminophen and ibuprofen to bring it down to around 99 degrees. Although
the use of ibuprofen is more or less forbidden in the hematology/oncology unit, Dr. Stroud
ordered it to fight Archie’s fever because that’s how dire the situation was becoming.
Turns out that both Broviac
lumens, or lines, are contaminated. This means that Archie has a
bacterial infection in his blood. Dr. Jung, an infectious disease specialist, examined Archie and
made some alterations to his antibiotics. She and Dr. Stroud agree that if Archie’s blood cultures
continue to grow a gram-positive bacterium that his Broviac will have to be pulled. Dr. Stroud had
planned to pull Archie’s Broviac following his next course of chemotherapy and replace it with a
traditional port, so
it may be that we simply end up pulling the line sooner than expected.
Archie’s blood counts are still very low. His AGC
remains at zero, and his white blood cells are
under 1,000. This is not a cause for alarm, nor is it unexpected. In fact, if Archie’s counts hadn’t
bottomed out the doctors would have been very concerned. But Dr. Stroud has prescribed a daily shot to
stimulate Archie’s bone marrow to begin producing cells to not only get them where they need to be to
begin the second course of chemotherapy, but also to help Archie’s body fight his current infection.
Dr. Stroud also received the results from the cytogenetic report the Mayo Clinic was generating based
on Archie’s latest bone marrow aspiration harvested after he completed his first course of chemotherapy.
We were excited to learn that the Mayo Clinic was unable to grow any cancer cells from Archie’s bone
marrow. This means that Archie’s treatment protocol is effective, and that we have definitive reason to
feel encouraged and hopeful regarding Archie’s prognosis.