To Go or Not to Go?

This week I have pondered the differences that have come into our lives over the past four months.  One of those differences is how illnesses are treated.  And knowing when and if to take the kids to the doctor.  Brendan has strict guidelines on when to go to the hospital.  But the other kids don't --

Brendan AWOL from his math homework

 Brendan and Aaron both came down with a cough last Saturday afternoon.  Both had a low temperature that night.  Brendan ended up in the PCH Emergency Room and was later admitted to the hospital for a 36 hour stay.  Many, many tests were done to try to determine what was causing the fever.

Aaron, on the other hand, stayed home and continued life as normal.

Some fun in the sun!

 As I sat in the emergency room at 3 a.m. that morning watching Brendan's monitors keep track of his oxygen, heart rate, and blood pressure, I pondered how differently the two were treated for the same illness.

 The obvious difference was that Brendan (at that time) had very few white blood cells to fight the invading germs.  So his body needed help.  (Often, that help has to come quickly.)

A walk to increase stamina.

 Brendan was given 3 different antibiotics while we were in the hospital and monitored continuously the whole time we were there.  He was discharged to go home only after his bacteria fighting blood cell counts were back up to a level where he could help himself and all of the cultures had negative results.  All while Aaron played at home.

Aaron today continued to get more and more sick.  His coughing increased and his fever rose.  Knowing that nothing had cultured out on Brendan's multiple tests at the hospital, I was pretty sure Aaron didn't have anything we could treat.

Nap time!  Still recovering.

 But with Brendan's chemo scheduled for Friday, we just couldn't take a chance that he had something  contagious.  Having a great doctor and staff here that know our needs, they slipped Aaron right in to get him checked.  Needing to know for sure that pneumonia wasn't the problem, they did chest x-rays.  Whew! No pneumonia.

I marvel at how differently we look at coughs and fevers now.  For Brendan, they can be life threatening.  Balancing out paranoia and a healthy dose of caution continues to be a tricky balancing act.