Nick surprises us with Pneumonia

Update: 9:30pm
Nick is feeling better. This afternoon was very busy. While Nick was sleeping his heart kept climbing and a fever spiked. We gave him Tylenol and after 45 minutes he was actually worse. The doctor gave him some fluids through his port/IV and motrin on top of it. This seemed to work really well and his fever is gone for now. His heart rate is down to the 130's (they were up in the 170's) and he is up watching TV and playing DS. I will be keeping a close watch on him tonight and checking to see if the fever comes back. He will probably receive more fluids later tonight to make sure he is hydrated enough. When I say more fluids, I mean a whole bag of IV solution, he does have constant fluids going through his port currently, they just increase the flow.

Hi All,
We got through the weekend pretty good and with the nice weather on Sunday we enjoyed a family day outside. Greg took Nick to clinic yesterday and he was feeling great. His counts were a bit low, but okay to receive Methotrexate. We usually see his counts high after a week of steroids and then he starts to bottom out over the 2nd week and then feel good by the 3rd, before the cycle starts over. His counts on Monday:
WBC: 3.9
RBC: 9.9
APC: 2,200
Last night he was over the neighbors house playing with the boys in the neighborhood and was great before going to bed. He said he felt some leg pain and we gave him morphine thinking it was from all the playing around he did. He woke up in the middle of the night coughing and Greg checked him and he felt fine. This morning he was very sleepy, when he is usually the first one up. I took him temperature and it was 103, we could not believe it. We woke him up a little and he had a head ache so I made the decision to give him some Tylenol. (If you remember, we are not suppose to give Tylenol until we call into clinic). He was very sweaty and just fell back asleep. After Colby & Tom had left Nick seemed better. His temp. came down to normal and finally woke up at 10am. I knew we were heading to clinic to just check on his counts and I was thinking he just needed some fluids. The nurse checked him as soon as we got there and she heard some 'crackling' in his chest so we were sent for an xray immediately. They accessed his port, took cultures and started him on antibiotics.
To our surprise we found out he is neutropenic and has pneumonia. His counts in one day changed to:
WBC: .8
RBC: 10 -good
APC: 300
ANC: 100
The ANC is a percentage of neutrophils he has in his body to fight infection, basically he has VERY little. This is main reason he has been admitted, to keep him in a room and away from the bad germs. He has received 2 antibiotics and one more may be coming. The doctors are trying to stay a head of this infection and keep monitoring him.
Greg & I are very scared. This is the first time in Nick's whole treatment that we have seen him this sick. He has been sleeping most of the day on and off and I think he does not really care he has to stay in the hospital, he is used to it. Greg had to bring overnight clothes for us, since I was convinced he was okay and I did not pack any, I should have known better. They have him on oxygen and we just woke him to give him another dose of Tylenol, his heart rate is spiking some. Please pray for Nick in hopes this infection is gone soon. Karen