Neutropenia

This post is #127 in a year-long series ... Through this series of posts I plan to share our family's experiences during our 17-year-old daughter's year-long battle with brain cancer, which began in February of 2008. My desire is to process through the events of that year from the perspective that a decade of time has brought ... for myself, really. But if you'd like to follow along, you're welcome to join me.

November 5, 2008

When you have a child who has been diagnosed with cancer, you quickly acquire an entirely new vocabulary.  Our current word of the week was "neutropenia."

The dictionary definition of neutropenia is as follows:  The presence of abnormally few neutrophils in the blood, leading to increased susceptibility to infection. It is an undesirable side effect of some cancer treatments.

In other words, an infection that might give someone else the sniffles could kill Hannah because her immunity was so depleted.  Her body simply had no way of fighting it off.  The wonderful staff at Children's Hospital was right on top of things, though, and thankfully, the antibiotics were doing their job.  So well, in fact, that we were once more mentally gearing up for her impending MRI. 

My email from ten years ago today ...

Just a quick update this afternoon, because there's not much news. Hannah's had a good day, and seems to be responding well to the antibiotics. She is going to get another blood transfusion today, because her counts have not risen enough after the unit they gave her yesterday. They're going to give her almost three more units, which should really make a difference for her. Her white count has also risen a little bit, and her platelets have remained level, so that is all good. They still have not completely isolated the bug in her bloodstream, but feel that the antibiotics she is receiving are providing full coverage for whatever it could be. They are almost positive that it is not staph, or anything that serious. The doctor tells us that we will be here at least one more day and her release will depend on what her blood counts do over the next day or so. We are going to be moving to a new room this afternoon, which is great news, because this is a very small room meant for short stays only--it doesn't even have a shower. And I guess Hannah's neutropenia (low immunity) is a blessing in this case, because she has to have a private room! We have also been told that her MRI will be taking place first thing in the morning. Now, "first thing in the morning" is relative when you're talking about hospital time, but hopefully it will be sometime in the early part of the day, and we should be able to review the results with our doctor not long after that.

We are so thankful for Hannah's continued improvement, and are looking forward to getting the MRI behind us tomorrow. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement....God truly is good, all the time!

Jill and Brad