First Fever

Kate had her first fever which landed us in the ER yesterday. I was working in another ER when Jason called and told me she had over a 102 temperature. Kate had been complaining of her stomach hurting and her head hurting as well as feeling cold today but she really didn't seem too bad until the evening. In fact, we celebrated Kate and Ava's birthdays earlier in the day and she even jumped on her new trampoline. Apparently after I left for work, she began complaining more about the chills and they took her temperature and discovered the fever. She hadn't felt warm to me earlier so we hadn't even checked. Unfortunately, there is no gray area with a febrile child with leukemia. The have to go to the ER for blood work, blood cultures and antbiotics if their fever is 101 or higher.
By the time I got home and took Kate to the ER she had nearly a 103 temperature and was feeling pretty yucky. I had spoken with the Heme/Onc physician on-call who told me to pack a bag because she'd be admitted. The ER was slammed (of course) and we had to wait a while to get the ball rolling on the lab work. We'd brought some books on tape which was a great diversion for Kate and in truth, she handled the wait better than I did. Our doctor was worried that her ANC would be under 500 and that she need to stay for antibiotics but it was amazingly high at 4000 and we didn't have to stay! The current theory is that she has a viral process going on and that her body will be able to fight it. They covered her anyway with IV Rocephin and we left to go home and sleep in our own beds - yea! I hope we don't have too many repeat performances of last night...