Monday, May 28, 2007

Day +82: The Half Day Holiday

OK, the long, relaxing weekend that we had envisioned unfortunately didn’t happen for us. On Saturday Keith complained of a headache and when we checked his temperature it was elevated a bit. Over the course of the next hour it climbed to 100.7º which for you or me isn’t really a big deal but for a high risk patient just coming off a bone marrow transplant it was cause for real concern. So we phoned the on-call physician at Stanford who directed us to head over to the emergency department at Children’s Oakland where Keith was checked over and subsequently checked in for a two night stay (with a view of the bay). He was pretty disappointed as were we all. It's a 48 hour stay minimum while antibiotics are administered and cultures from his central line are evaluated.

In the end, the cultures came back negative and it seemed to resolved by itself. Keith was released mid-day on Monday much to his relief and delight (he even was discharged several hours early). Not interested in hanging around too long lest they change their minds, we raced home to enjoy the remaining half day of the holiday weekend. I suppose the good news in all of this is that whatever bug he had he was able to fight it off pretty much on his own, suggesting that his nascent immune system is at least semi-functional now.

An interesting side-note: Keith has developed into such a ‘foodie’ of late which is both good and bad. The good side is that he really appreciates good food, analyzing it and savoring it. The bad side is he will not consume anything unless one of four simple benchmarks is met: 1: great taste, 2: good texture, 3: interesting, even strong seasonings or, 4: anything Pam makes. Unfortunately that means that a lot of food doesn't measure up and the food at Children’s misses on all four counts so he didn’t really eat much at all for 48 hours. Fortunately dinner at home was more appealing and he wolfed it down, commenting how good it was several times. Josie and I were happy that he was happy but also relieved to see him send some real calories down the hatch.


If we could just keep him home for a while I know we could expand his waistline a bit.

6 comments:

Linda Bemis said...

Dear Keith and all,

What a bummer! When our daughter was getting chemotherapy, this happened to us several times when we thought we were almost home free. And I do understand about the food. I would try to prepare some of her favorite things, only to have her turn her nose up because "something" was wrong.

Last night Nancy's family came for a cook out and we had hot fudge sundaes because I know it is one of her favorites. As I was dishing her ice cream, she asked me not to give her too much. Then she drowned it in hot fudge. As I looked on she commented to me,
"Mom, didn't you read my comment to Keith that ice cream is only necessary to convey the hot fudge to the mouth?"

So you know you are in our thoughts a lot.

Linda Bemis

Unknown said...

Wow Keith. Your resiliency is unmatched- I am really glad you are back with your family again. I liked your evil picture from a few days back and think you look terrific.
With all of your experience as a foodie, who knows where it will take you. I know you'd have the biggest fan club in the history of the food channel if you decided to host your own cooking show. Take good care.
Jenny Barnett Champion (Sandy Barnett's daughter)

Anonymous said...

Keithanator:

This should meet all of your criteria: www.t-rex-bbq.com.

Sorry about the unexpected incarceration at Childrenz over the weekend. Hopefully, you got a chance to spend a little time with that new Italian girl in your neighborhood -- the redhead.

Anonymous said...

Keith and Family,
Thanks for the comment instructions. Seems easy enough!
So glad to hear the fever was only a temporary problem, and now you can get back to eating more of that good food. Maybe you should consider a career as a food critic...lots of restaurants and writing on a laptop outside of some sophisticated sidewalk cafe!
I have never tried ground chipotle pepper on garlic bread, but that does sound delicious.
Joey says hello-we spent the weekend in beautiful Reno, in a large convention center with about 5000 smelly basketball players. His team came in third for his age group, and we were all ready to come home by Monday afternoon.

Our best to you and your family-
genie and the goodreault family

Anonymous said...

Keith, I know exactly how you feel. Unfortunately, I have been forced to eat gross dorm food for the past 5 months without ANY of my mom's cooking! You've eaten more of her food than I have recently!

I am, however going to eat some sushi tonight for my birthday dinner. I will definitely be thinking of you. Remember - No one else is allowed to be your sushi deliverer this summer! I will be at your beck and call whenever you crave California rolls. =)

Love,
Lauren

Anonymous said...

Steve, I have not been able to read the last two entries due to need to download something from microsoft which I apparently don't have or I have it and don't know what to do about it. Will check it out with some guru.
Sorry about Keith's set back and hope all is better now. I think hot fudge would cure me of any *off the feed* mode I would get into. Will try to solve my problem and catch up. The Big L