Low Counts

After a day and  half at home, Sierra started running  fever Wednesday morning. Anything over 100.5° is an automatic ER visit for antibiotics, but since Sierra's counts were expected to be low the doctor decided to admit us even before we got to the ER, so that she could be monitored until her counts go back up. She and I headed to the ER at 5:30am and were checked in to our oncology room at 7(that is super fast). As expected, her ANC was at zero, basically meaning she had no white blood count thus no immune system, so any sort of fever is a worry because it can mean an infection that she wont be able to fight off. She was started on antibiotics, and fluids, and IV nutrition. Most of the day Wednesday and Thursday was spent watching TV and resting. She did have a small nose bleed on Thursday, but nothing uncotrollable so she didnt need an emergency platelet transfusion.
Overnight on Thursday she also had a bout of puking, which consisted  mostly of mucus and blood since she has nothing in her stomach. Today she did more resting and TV watching, though she did perk up enough for about 10 miutes this afternoon and do some impromptu math problems in her new notebook from her teacher. She had a platelet transfusion today because her am counts came back low. After getting them her fever spiked a bit and her blood pressure dropped and she started chilling, so the nurse had to keep a close eye on her for a little while, but everything went back to normal after a bit. After going to bed for the night  tonight she woke up to puke again, this time there was only a little bit of blood, which is likely from the sores in her mouth and throat. We are waiting now on a red blood cell transfusion, which will go in over 4hrs tonight.
Sierra is being so strong through all of this. She has had a few moments of frustration, but has mostly taken everything in stride. I am so proud of how strong she is to be able to handle all of this really hard stuff.