Testing, testing

So, the doctors came to look at Magnus this morning, and given his elevated white blood cell count of the last two days, they were concerned about the fact that he had "spiked a fever," despite the fact that 38 degrees is not much of a fever. They ordered a few tests, and also put him back on oxygen, "just in case," which is kind of silly, but whatever,I'm confident that he can come back off it easily.

They just took some more blood to check his WBCs again (it took 3 sticks to get a blood sample), and they did another urine catheter sample, so the poor guy really went through the wringer this morning, yet again.

But then just now, the nurse checked his vitals again, and his fever is gone. So who knows what's going on? Oh, and in the meantime, those IV antibiotics he's been on for the past 2 days have given him thrush, diarrhea, and a fungal diaper rash.

Oh, I also forgot to mention that I almost ripped the dietician's head off this morning when he came over to discuss the fact that Magnus was not meeting his weight gain goals while in the hospital and that they might want to keep him here longer because of that. Um, yeah, he's not eating well because he feels lousy, and he's burning a ton of calories because he's getting poked and prodded and stabbed at all hours of the day, and you think keeping him in the hospital LONGER is going to help? He seemed to back down when I showed him my excel spreadsheet containing Magnus's weight measurements at least twice a week ever since he was discharged from the hospital on December 17th, and he realized that we are on top of things.

Anyway, I was pretty upset this morning. It just seemed like everything about the hospital was making him sicker and sicker and the doctors just wanted to keep him here longer and do more invasive testing, and it just never felt like it was going to end. But actually right now I feel OK...I think it's because Magnus has been showing that those smiles this morning were no fluke. Even though he was feverish, Magnus was really back to his old self this morning, and just seemed much more comfortable than he has for the past week. Somehow it all doesn't seem so bad as long as he seems to feel OK.