Day 109: From Fever To Belly Pains

The past couple days have been a little bit of a roller coaster for Cristian. Heading into the weekend things were improving. Fevers were lessening (gone now), attitude was improving, we felt like we could see the light at the end of the tunnel which was discharge. That’s when the belly pain started.

Up to this point the Dr’s have continued to draw blood to confirm that no new infections had developed. All clear, no signs of a viral infection after the first day we were here. Because Cristian has 0 neutrophils and therefor no ability to fight off anything they need to keep testing and providing IV antibiotics (and now anti fungal). During the tests they did notice that his red blood cells and his platelets were low. This resulted in a second blood transfusion since we were admitted, and a second round of platelets. These gave Cristian a little boost and it showed in him playing with his toys and talking more. But there was still belly pain.

Today as we discussed Cristian’s worsening state and his symptoms with the Dr, she laid out a few possibilities. Constipation, pancreatitis, or fungal grown in the gut. The Dr felt the likely cause was in that order as well. We discussed how Cristian had been “regular” but also that he hasn’t ate anything in about 7 days at this point. We decided to put a pin in that one and moved onto pancreatitis.

Testing for pancreatitis is done by looking for chemicals in the blood which suggest the pancreas is not working properly. As Cristian had a blood draw earlier that morning we were able to order a test on that sample and received the results fairly quickly. Confirmed, Cristian has pancreatitis.

This means that we have to stop Cristian from eating (he hasn’t wanted to) or drinking anything to let the pancreas recover. Any food or drink will stimulate the pancreas and cause more belly pain. To help Cristian through this new setback they are providing him extra fluids and IV nutrients. This will hopefully pass in a few days but could take longer.

With all that has happened we now have new requirements of what is needed for before we are able to leave.

• Neutrophil count increasing 2 days in a row
• Cristian has to eat something and keep it down

This is a much smaller list that we had a few days ago which is nice to see. We are still at least a few days from discharge, unfortunately.

All the while we are rotating daily who is at the hospital with Cristian and who is home with Leena. While it is difficult to see Cristian going through all of this, Leena helps recharge our batteries each day as she greets one of us at the door with a huge smile and a big hug. We cannot wait until our family is whole once again.

Thank you God and everyone for the support we have been receiving so far. This has been a mountain and we are still climbing. Please pray for a quick passage of this pancreatitis and discharge ASAP!