TODD ADMITTED BACK TO HOSPITAL AFTER KIDS ARRIVAL TO HOUSTON

Group Picture: Picking up Ellie and Lewis at Hobby Airport, Houston

On Saturday, November 5, 2016, Todd woke up with a fever at the hotel!  We were planning on picking up two of our children from the airport for a weekend visit.  I started to take him to the emergency room, but after an hour, it went down.  He insisted on going to the airport with me anyway, but he felt so poorly that I had to wheel him in with his mask on.  The kids arrived and we were so happy!  We got a quick bite to eat, but Todd didn't feel like eating.  I was still concerned and make him pull the thermometer out of his jacket pocket to take his temperature.  He got sweaty and the fever seemed to break for good.  I took him back to the hotel while I took Ellie to the store.  When I got back, I noticed right away that his cheeks were red.  I asked if he was running a fever and he said yes.  I had already packed a suitcase for him earlier that morning and had it in the car just in case.  So we hugged the kids and were off to the ER.

Of course, they got him into a room and said that they were planning on admitting him.  They worked quickly to try to find the source of the fever: blood cultures, chest x-ray, urinalysis, etc.  When the doctor came in I told him I had been concerned that he had 0 platelets, which worried me about bleeding in the brain, or that he had an abscessed tooth from one of those cavities in his wisdom teeth.  He asked if Todd has had a scan of his head since we arrived or even recently, and I said NO!
So he decided to do a CT of the head. 

Sure enough, it was the CT scan of his head that showed a sinusitis infection in his right sinus.  This was not what I expected, or what they were looking for, but I guess it was a good thing that they did it.   The chest x-ray looked ok at this time.  After they got Todd into a room on the Leukemia Floor, I stayed until after 10 p.m. and drove back to the hotel to stay with the kids.  Of course, he needed blood and platelet transfusions too.  Luckily, I had called Todd's cousin Denise who lives in nearby League City earlier in the day asking her to help with the kids if I needed to take Todd to the hospital.  So, she was ready to come get them and take them to dinner.  It was the first time that they met, but they immediately hit it off with Denise and her two adult children Seth and Emily.  I was so grateful!

The next morning, I took the kids to breakfast and we went out to the hospital to sit with Todd. He was doing better.  The fever was down, but they wanted to do a nasal wash to test for the flu along with a second CT with contrast of the right head/sinus along with the upper chest to get a better look. I knew they were calling in a head and neck surgeon and an infectious disease team, but I didn't think they would do much else.  I wanted to spend some "fun time" with the kids, so I took them to the Galleria Mall to look around and get dinner.  I texted Todd and checked on him several times to see if he wanted me to bring him food, but he said nothing about what happened while we were gone.  We walked into the room and noticed dry blood all over the front of his shirt and cotton gauze stuffed up his right nostril!

While we were gone, they sent in a Head and Neck Surgeon to take a look at the sinus fearing a fungal infection; and without any warning or pre-medication, he stuffed a large scissors-like tool up his right nostril to biopsy the sinus infection!  Todd said it was the most painful thing he has ever gone through! After the biopsy, he got up to go to the bathroom, when he had a gushing nosebleed!  The surgeon had to come back in and placing packing up his nostril to stop the bleeding. I felt so bad that I wasn't there; but he said there was nothing I could have done (except insist they give him something for the pain!).  The only good thing the surgeon did do was walk down the biopsy to the lab himself so we could get the results right away.

Todd was very congested after this and having some post-nasal drip after the procedure.  He had been pretty upset at the whole experience and had no appetite.  Before me and kids left to go back to the hotel, the results came back that the biopsy showed a fungal infection!  I really didn't fully understand what made a fungal infection so horrible or what they would have to do to treat it.  The team of doctors immediately wanted to schedule an MRI to get even a better look!  Our first worry was that they would want to surgically remove the infection, but with Todd's platelets so low, we doubted that this was a real option. We learned that a fungal infection can travel to other places like the brain and the eye where it can be extremely dangerous!  We left him in his room about an hour after visiting hours, because the kids were going home the next day and were anxious to spend more time with him.  I had also decided to check-out of our hotel room two nights early.  Since the kids were going home on Monday afternoon, I didn't want to waste resources staying two more nights by myself.  I could just pack a bag and plan on staying with Todd in his hospital room.  I knew this meant staying up all night packing up the hotel room!

I found out the following morning that they had taken him down for the MRI around 1:00 a.m. on Monday morning, November 7, 2016.  Life here for Todd was getting more complicated by the day. After a quick hotel breakfast, I started loading up the car with our things and we all headed out to the hospital to see Todd.  When we arrived, we learned that Todd not only had a fungal infection in his sinus but they also found nodules in his lungs, which are indicative of a fungal infection. They doctors said it isn't uncommon for the fungal infection to drop from the sinus into the lungs.

The doctors continued to treat him with anti fungal IV medication but they want to try giving him white blood cell transfusions to help fight the infections. Todd still has zero white cells to fight it.  They sent a representative in from the blood bank to discuss the process of donating white cells.  We learned that there is no storage bank for white cells since they have no shelf life; they have to be donated and given to him within 24 hours. Unlike transfusing red cells, they don't care about matching the donor cells to the patient, but it is a multi-day process for a donor to get screened and to have their white cells harvested  It is very hard to find donors for this reason and usually only family and close friends are willing to go through such a rigorous process.  I will be going as soon as possible to start the screening process! They really like multiple donors but since we are not local it just might be me only who can donate on a limited basis. We knew that we couldn't ask our own friends and family so far away in Ohio.  Instead, we would have to rely on what family we had here and if we could get the word out to people who had friends and family here that would be willing to help.

I had already planned for Todd's cousin Denise to take the kids to the airport on Monday afternoon, November 7, because Todd originally had out-patient appointments and bone marrow biopsy already scheduled during that time at the hospital. Even though those appointments were now cancelled and Todd had been admitted to the hospital, I didn't want to leave him after I wasn't there during the traumatic biopsy!  The kids, Denise, and her kids went downstairs and had a quick bite to eat.  Then I walked the kids out to the car to get their luggage.  It was hard to say goodbye, but the visit was so refreshing and we all felt better having been together (even though we were missing Abby). 

Large Flag hanging inside the Galleria Mall, along with a view of the ice skating rink and shops.

And just like our time together is gone...

Little did we realize how long it would take to fight this fungal infection.  It was just beginning.