BACK IN THE HOSPITAL AGAIN!!!

5/22/09-Friday p.m.
Yesterday was not a good day!! My mother & I came up for Julia's clinic appointment on Thursday. When we got in the room the nurses were asking how our week had been and any medicines Julia had been on. Well, the past few days at home, we had noticed a few "bug bites" on Julia's arms, no big deal, just a few bites. Of course we were wondering what had bitten her, since she had not been outside hardly at all. We started suspecting our dog, Stanley, & wondered if he had fleas, which he never has!! Jeff & I did not have any bites & we saw no fleas on the dog. Well, when we got to the clinic, I mentioned these bites. That was like pressing an alert button with these nurses!!! They immediately assumed chicken pox, which had never crossed our minds. We felt so bad, because chicken pox is a major concern for children with leukemia, and we had been out in the waiting room with other children and had stayed at the Ronald McDonald House the night before. They got the doctor in the room quickly & he looked at Julia's bumps. He did not think the bumps looked like typical chicken pox, but since Julia had chicken pox vaccines, he said it could be possible for her symptoms to present differently. Next, they got 3 doctors from infectious disease alll cloaked & masked up to look at Julia. They were not certain either, so they said they would need to get a sample of some of the bumps (like a skin scrape for a dog). Meanwhile, I had called Jeff, told him to get Stanley to the vet immediately, have him skin scraped for any possible mites, which he had none. Jeff then got a ride to Atlanta with some friends. Julia got very upset at the sight of these new doctors & very frightened about the "skin scrape", so they had to give her some concious sedation for that procedure. After spending about 5 1/2 hours in that exam room, they finally moved us into a hospital room for Julia to receive I.V. anti-viral medicines. The concern with chicken pox is that it is a rapidly spreading respiratory virus that can quickly move into the lungs & cause pneumonia. They did a chest x-ray, which was o.k. and the skin sample turned up negative for the chicken pox virus. But they still want to treat her as if it could be chicken pox. We have since had many dermatologists look at her & no one seems to know what it might be. One of the infectious disease doctors came & took pictures of Julia's bumps since most doctors these days don't ever see chicken pox anymore. I told her that should be the only time she is ever photographed topless!! Today, they decided that they should do a biopsy of a couple of the bumps to see if they could learn anything that way. It will take a few days for those results to come back. Meanwhile, we continue on I.V. antiviral and maybe go home tomorrow or Sunday on oral antiviral meds. Interestingly, an older gentleman dermatologist came in & looked at her briefly today and asked if we had fleas in our house?!!
On the bright side, Julia's blood counts have come up a lot and they have postponed her next chemo treatment again until next Thursday. Hopefully, our next blog posting will come from home. Thank you for your many prayers.
Love,
Sharon, Jeff, & Julia