The year brought on a feeling of newness and hope. We kept hearing that the chemo would be coming to an end in the near future. We were feeling that there was finally a light at the end of the tunnel. Another change for the New Year was that Brent was going back to work. He had thankfully been off work for five months which really helped us out at the time and gave us the chance to completely focus on getting Jeremy better while also making sure that we didn't lose sight of the importance of family and our baby girl Chloe. Brent was anxious to get back to work and to get back into flying. I was excited for him too, but also a little apprehensive. Jeremy would still be getting admitted for chemo and what about complications from the chemo? Luckily we had Brent's parents who were there all the time, any time. Whenever Jeremy had to go back to the hospital and Brent was away with work, Brent's parents would take Chloe. I was, and will always be forever grateful!
The month started off quite uneventful. Brent went back to work January 2, and Jeremy was due back in the hospital on the 3rd for another round of chemo. He received his chemo over the five days that it took to get and then on day six we were discharged home!! This was a really weird feeling. Chemo was done and nothing else was holding us back, so off we went back home.
Feeling good and ready to go home!
Chloe said "I'm so happy to have my baby home!!!" as she snuggles with him in his crib.
We were home by dinner time and had a fun night at home with Chloe. Brent was working and overnighting somewhere. Jeremy seemed a bit out of sorts but I thought that it was due to the harsh chemo that he just had. We also had never been home before post chemo, there was always some kind of complication or another. I was giving Jeremy anti-nausea meds; Ondansetron every 8 hours and Gravol every 4 hours. The next morning I went into Jeremy's room to give him his 6 o'clock Gravol and found him in a pool of vomit and stool. I cleaned him up and put him back to bed. I kept telling myself that this was a normal side effect of the chemo. At 10 I fed him and he threw everything up all over the bed and the floor. I then changed his diaper and he pooped all over everything. People would probably say that I was being ignorant and missing the signs, but maybe I didn't want to see them. Maybe I knew in the back of my mind that something wasn't right, but I wanted so bad for everything to be okay.
Chloe reading to Jeremy on his play mat.
Throughout the day I thought Jeremy looked pretty awful. He wasn't smiling (which is huge for him), not really moving, not eating much (which I attributed to the nausea) and his eyes were looking quite sunken in. Brent came home from work and immediately said that Jeremy looked terrible. I took a quick listen to him and found that his heart was racing at 184 beats per minute and his resp rate was up to 59 breathes per minute. I called Children's with my findings and they said to bring him into emerg right away. Brent brought him in and with bloodwork they soon found what I was suspecting, Jeremy was quite dehydrated. Infact he was severely dehydrated. I couldn`t believe how fast it had all happened! Just a day prior, we were at the hospital and Jeremy was doing amazing. I knew it took no time for things like this to happen to such a small body, but I was still in disbelief when I saw how fast it overtook Jeremy. They gave him a bolus of fluids, blood, and started him on morphine. They kept him on regular doses of Ondansetron and Gravol. The next day Jeremy was still quite gaggy and crying out a lot. They did an X-ray and saw large air pockets in Jeremy`s large intestine and it was really inflamed. This lead them to a diagnosis of neutropenic enterocolitis, also known as typhlitis.
Typhlitis is an infection in the large intestine that affects immunocompromised patients, such as those undergoing chemotherapy. In every person, there is intestinal flora in the bowels. This is usually not a problem as it stays confined within the walls of the intestines and is excreted when necessary. In a cancer patient, specifically one that is undergoing chemotherapy, the flora becomes harmful because there is no immune system to keep this bacteria away from healthy tissue. Because of their neutropenia, they cannot keep the bacteria at bay and it attacks the bowels. To treat this, they chose to stop giving anything by mouth, start on antibiotics, and do daily abdominal X-rays.
By the 13th, four days later, Jeremy was looking and I`m sure, feeling much better. They started him on a continuous morphine infusion the day before. They also did an abdominal X-ray which showed them that the air pockets in his bowel had decreased significantly. Jeremy was so happy and squealing a lot, he was returning back to his normal self. They slowly weaned him off of the anti-nausea meds and Jeremy handled it well. By the 15th, Jeremy was off of the continuous morphine infusion and he was still smiling.
Chloe came for a surprise visit!!
Jeremy`s back!! He is once again sporting his million dollar smile!!!!
Chloe enjoying the big first snowfall!
Chloe's first hair cut at nearly 29 months!!
What I would wake up to every morning at the hospital once Jeremy was feeling better.
Jeremy's play table and chair, he loved this thing!--the Bumbo didn't support him enough.
Getting a smiley picture of the two of us :)
Chloe comes for another visit!!
By January 22nd, Jeremy was completely back to normal. We were discharged home and as soon as we got there, Jeremy wasted no time with picking up where he left off. As soon as I put him on his blanket on the floor, he grabbed his feet and started rolling everywhere! He wouldn't stop smiling and was very giggly! Man it was good to be home!
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