septic shower

Yesterday I decided to take advantage of being home and take the kids to playgroup. They had a ball especially Ethan who hadn't seen a slide or that many activities for months. When we got home the carelink nurse was waiting. The antibiotic was given without any complications. Not long after the nurse left Ethan decided to pull out the nasogastric tube. I managed to get this back in with nurse Erin's help! After lunch Ethan appeared pretty tired which I thought was to be expected after the big morning. He was coughing a little more than normal while he was asleep which was concerning a friend, but thats just Ethan. Little did I know that the next time I was to check him he would have a heart rate of 190, respiratory rate of 65, temp of 40.5 and was pretty unresponsive. He was the flatest I had seen him for a long time. An ambulance was called and we were at Monash before we knew it. The oncology team knew we were on our way and met us there. It was thought that he had had a septic shower. Bacteria from the port was pushed through the port into the heart and lungs. They inserted an IV, took some blood, and commenced antibiotics and oxygen. We were then transferred to the kids.

The ICU doctors assessed him on admission and kept an eye on him overnight. Today he had an echo to rule out any heart involvement. A nervous wait but we were given the all clear. The doctors wanted the port out ASAP so he went to theatre at 1:30 today. The plan was to remove the port and insert a picc line. The anaesthetist explained that it wasn't as easy as it sounds and if he couldn't get it in they would put in a CVC (central venous catheter; an IV straight into the big vein in your neck). The latter was achieved. They tried for a PICC but couldn't thread it up his arm. The anaesthetist didn't want to prolong the anaesthetic, it is too risky with him being septic, so they opted for the quicker option and put in the cvc. Hopefully this will be efficient enough for the next round of chemo and any complications that may arise from it.

He recovered well and was back on the ward a couple of hours later. His temperatures have settled down with antibiotics. Not sure how long he will need these for or how long we will be at the kids or when the next chemo will be.