A temperature leads to a visit to the Emergency Room

In Todd's fourth round of Vidaza, on day 2, August 12, 2014, he began to get chills and then spiked a fever of 101.5. Anytime a chemotherapy patient gets a fever over 100.4, you are advised to contact your physician because it can be a sign of infection. 

Todd had been having headaches with this round of Vidaza and was taking Tylenol about every 4-6 hours for relief.  He had been feeling flushed and hot mixed with chills.  He covered up with a blanket and then got ready for bed, taking another dose of Tylenol for the headache.  He still felt hot about midnight, when Abby was on her way to bed.  She went hug him and immediately felt heat from his body.  I grabbed the thermometer, and we took it several times to verify it before calling his local oncologist.  The doctor advised him to go to the emergency room to have it checked out. 

Todd was very reluctant to go, he was tired, and by this time the Tylenol was working to reduce his fever.  However, we were concerned that there still could be an infection and feared the Tylenol could have been masking the fever longer than just that evening.  The only thing that convinced him to go was that they could take blood work to verify an infection and that we didn't want to jeopardize the transplant process with an infection that could get out of hand if not treated. 

So, my daughter and I packed him up and took him to the emergency room at our local hospital.  They took blood cultures looking for infections, a chest x-ray, and a urinalysis.  Everything came back showing NO Infection, but his white blood counts were very low: 1%.

He was released after 4:30 a.m.  The flushing, headaches, and itching symptoms as a result of the Vidaza continued through his fifth day of treatment.  No 6th or 7th days of treatment was given in his fourth round due to the insurance cancellation. (See post).