Day +201: A quick stay in the Pole House

Mina Brigitta had been feeling a little bit under the weather, and Monday night had a low-grade fever of 99.7. But Tuesday she was feeling fine, and Keri took the kids to Austin and Bliss's house for the day. They both fell asleep at 5:00 when they got in the car, and both of them went right back to sleep after Keri transferred them into the house. Keri went and checked on them at about 8:00, and Mina was burning up with a fever of 101.9. So we paged the on-call doctor, who wanted us to check into the hospital for the night. Isaac woke up when we were just about done packing, and Keri thought he felt hot. So we took his temperature, and he had a fever of 101.7.

So Mina and I stayed in the hospital last night, and then Isaac went to a babysitter today while Keri sat with Mina in the hospital. They were just being cautious bringing her in, wanting to make sure she didn't have a bacterial infection, which could still be dangerous at this point, even though all signs pointed to a virus. They took a blood culture to check for bacteria, and a nasal swab to check for viruses, and sure enough, the swab came back positive for parainfluenza 2 virus (http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=31631). Mina Brigitta has the flu. This is obviously of some concern because she's still immunocompromised, but she does have T-cell function now which gave the doctors enough comfort to lift the restrictions on her activities. Dr. Horn was uncharacteristically reassuring today, telling us that Mina Brigitta is much less vulnerable than she was a few months ago, and telling us how pleased she is with Mina Brigitta's overall progress. Plus she's already on effectively two anti-viral medications (acyclovir and IV immunoglobulin). Mina Brigitta never really seemed all that sick, and her fever broke this afternoon. Once the diagnosis came back, they felt comfortable sending us home, so we checked out at about 9:30 tonight.

Isaac is not doing quite as well. Kaaren, his babysitter, said he spent most of the day either sleeping or insisting on being held, and he's been waking up every half hour so far tonight. His biggest problem is a bad case of diahrrea, which has really inflamed his bottom. He did show some life tonight after Mina and I got home. Mina really missed him today. We were walking home from the hospital carrying the three balloons that Aunta Teri sent -- two pink heart-shaped balloons and one Pooh balloon. Out of the blue, she said Isaac could have one of the pink ones. Then she said he could have both pink ones. Then she even said she would let Isaac hold her Pooh balloon! When we got home, she wanted Isaac to sit on her lap. He was content to sit there for a few minutes playing with the balloon while she attempted to read him a book. It was a hysterical and very touching scene.