Because there's a chance that more people would donate blood if only they knew the good it does, I've copied one of Tim's journal entries from the CaringBridge website. His mom does a great job keeping us updated. Tim, as you'll recall, is the 17 year old athlete I know who developed leukemia a short while ago.
FRIDAY, MARCH 02, 2007 07:00 PM, CST
I finally have a minute to update everyone on Tim. It has been a crazy two days. I woke up Wednesday evening every four hours to give him morphine to control his pain from a headache. Then at 5:00am, Tim said his joints were hurting. This was the pain he had coming off the dexomethazone the last time he took it. Tim remembered how bad the pain was the last time and wanted me to call the HOT unit. (Later he told me that he was saying he wanted to go to the emergency room but I didn't understand that) (Mom screwed up). I called the HOT Unit at Children's to ask if there was anything else we could do to relieve his pain. They called Dr. Browning who was on call and she said to give him more morphine. At 8:00am he was still in excruciating pain in all his joints. I called the HOT clinic because it was now open. They asked if he wanted to continue to try morphine at home or come in to the clinic. Tim wanted to go into the clinic.
Of course we were having a terrible storm. It had been raining and freezing at 5:00 and then it turned to snow about 6:30am. So now I would be driving in very bad conditions. The first step was to get Tim from the couch to his bedroom so he could get dressed. When he finally got to his room, he layed on the bed and cried. His knees and feet were screaming in pain. I stayed with him for awhile rubbing his knees and feet. Then I got the jeep out and left it running to get warm. Brad shoveled a path from the deck, around the front of the jeep, and down the passenger side of the car. I went back in to see if Tim was dressed yet or not. He was laying on the bed in his shorts. It had hurt too much and he had to lay back down. I helped him get dressed while he layed on the bed. Then I asked him if he wanted Brad and I to take him to the jeep in a wheelchair. In typical Tim fashion he said, "No, I'll just run to the jeep and scream in pain when I get there." That's exactly what he did.
A trip that normally takes us 15 to 20 minutes ended up taking us 45 minutes. We decided to take the highway and it was only moving 30 miles an hour. I was glad though that I had decided on the highway. The sides streets weren't plowed and there was a lot of traffic on them. When I parked in the parking structure, I left Tim in the jeep and got a wheelchair. It had been sitting outside so I used Tim's blanket to cover the seat and back. I pushed Tim into the hospital to the HOT clinic. By the time he was checked in, his head was drooping. They wanted to weigh him, take his temperature, and get a blood pressure. I asked them to skip the weighing because standing for any length of time was excruciating. Since he had just been here the day before they agreed. The assistants took his blood pressure and his temp. Come to find out, Tim had a fever of 101.3. He wasn't hot to the touch and his face wasn't flushed.
They put him in a treatment room and accessed his port. Then Suzy came in and said that he didn't look like he had a fever and took his temperature again. Sure enough his temperature was 101.3. She began her examination and found that his pulse rate was up, he was breathing fast, his hands and feet were ice cold, and the color in his nails would not return fast enough when squeezed (I guess this is significant). They started fluids and gave him morphine. He was still in a lot of pain and his temperature had gone up a little. They decided to give him antibiotics because they felt he may have an infection or a virus. After they gave him the antibiotics, his blood pressure went down(110 over 41). Next they gave him three units of packed red blood cells(thank you donors). Oops I missed a step. Since his port had fluids and antibiotics running through it, they had to put another IV in his right arm for the blood. Tim was not happy about this. He hates needles. Lately they have hurt more than usual. Tim asked for some emla cream on his arm but they needed to get the IV in quick. The nurse offered him the spray that numbs your arm. When it was done, Tim said that the numbing spray worked very well. They used this IV for the red blood cells. Then the team of doctors, nurse practitioners, and nurses decided to give him another antibiotic (broad spectrum used for staff infections). By this time his fever was up to 102.6. Tim was exhausted from fighting the pain and infection and began to fall asleep. When he would dose off, his oxygen level would go down
