Fever Week

Ania has been in the hospital for 5 days. Unexplained fevers the culprit. Fevers almost to 104 degrees at times. Touching the forehead of a person with a fever that high is really scary. Heat radiates off skin before you even really touch.  

Before all of this mess with fevers occurred, we had a beautiful few days out of the hospital after her 3rd chemo treatment. Thank goodness! The fresh air had to do some good for her before all the unexpected hospital time. 

Proudly working on a new plot of garden the weekend before.

We even got a nature hike in between chemotherapy and the fever onset.

Shhhh deer!

Little explorers ! 

The next morning, Tuesday, Ania crawled into bed with us and I felt the heat radiating. She had a check up anyways that morning but her labs came back fine so we were able to go home. I had a feeling it might go bad eventually because she was sleeping all day. In the afternoon the fever got up to 103.7 so we were told to come back to be admitted. 

Back in the hospital, several tests were run. Most test results come back within 24-48 hours so I knew it would be at least a night or two. 

Lots of snuggle time ( silly time) 

She got to play with the little friend she has seen now a few times at treatments named Makayla. She is a fellow warrior and Ania picked out a pair of purple wings to bring to her at her next hospital stay. We did not anticipate a visit so soon but it was nice to see her sweet friend again! 

Magical Butterfly wings have the power to bring joy no matter the setting, no matter the illness! Ania was so happy to see they had the same effect on Makayla as they do her! 

She rested a lot as we were confined to her room due to isolation that started Thursday while the medical team was trying to figure out what was causing the fevers. She had a blood transfusion as well on Thursday because her counts were low. They hoped transfusion would help give her a boost and fight off whatever was causing the illness. 

To stay occupied during the isolation, I knitted a butterfly pattern cloth. Knitting has become my favorite hospital past time. It's good to focus on something constructive and creative in the drawn out waiting time! Ania likes to watch me do it too. 

Ania had a few late night painting sessions since her sleep schedule was a little wacky. She thought it was pretty fun to be painting at 10:30 at night! Her window of activities was small as the fevers would come and go every 3-4 hours so if she wanted to paint late night, so be it!

Working on her fox :)

She also worked on her tattoo drawing skills! She's very good at drawing "garden life" tattoos on herself! 

Naptime after tattoo time

And baking cupcakes in bed?! That was super fun too! 

She had a couple visitors over the last 5 days. Of course daddy and Kellen came by regularly. She really enjoyed seeing her boys! 

Sibling snuggles :) 

A visit from Chicago Bear football player Charles "Peanut" Tillman

This picture just cracks me up. She was not upset about him at all - although she thought he was a baseball player. Two minutes before his arrival she had asked me to go to the playroom and I had to tell her the heartbreaking news that she couldn't leave her room. So she was in the middle of a meltdown when the charitable Bear tried to give her a little visit. He is very nice and a very good sport! She and I had a great laugh over this picture awhile later :) AND we got a signed football to give to daddy for Father's Day!

A visit from Olaf of Frozen ( in giant balloon form) cheered her up instantly! 

Madame Butterfly

It was not until Friday night that some test results came back with a conclusive reason for her fevers. She had Rhinovirus- aka the common cold. She had no cold symptoms at all- other than the pesky scary high fevers. Her last fever was at 3:00pm Friday. Amazing that a seemingly "ordinary" virus could cause all this trouble. Compromised immunity due to chemotherapy is no joke! 

As of about noon on Saturday  (today) we are home. Ania is so happy and as soon as she got out of the car, she laid down on the the front lawn of our house and said "ahhhhh". Good to be home! 

God Bless,

Erica