Back home, briefly.

We are allowed to bring Zac home from the hospital.  The plan is that we would bring him back in a week’s time for more chemo so we are happy to be able to spend some time at home and for some family to be able to see him.  Initially, Zac is happy to be home.  He enjoys seeing his brother, grandparents and playing with his toys.  That night we attempt to give him a bath.  The central line mustn’t get wet, so we try and seal it using clingfilm as recommended by the nurses but he completely freaks out at this so we abandon this plan.  As the weekend goes on, Zac deteriorates.  He is very sleepy, grouchy, and completely loses his appetite.  On the Sunday he develops a fever so we take him back to the hospital, where he is readmitted on the ward.  When a child who is undergoing chemotherapy and has a central line fitted develops a fever, this has to result in a trip to A&E for blood cultures to rule out infection from the line.  Being so early on in his treatment, we were not yet familiar with the usual pattern played out after chemotherapy.  Unbeknown to us, he was neutropenic, meaning his white blood cells were very low, and his red blood cells and platelets were crashing too.  He was starting to develop mucositis- painful ulcers throughout his digestive tract, particularly his mouth, so it was no wonder he had gone off his food.  On the ward he was placed on IV morphine, fluids and antibiotics as well as TPN- a sort of intravenous feed to sustain him as he couldn’t tolerate anything in his mouth or tummy.