Waiting for the counts to recover

Austin has been resting peacefully for most of the day. His stomach was upset, so the nurse gave him a couple of anti-nausea medications to help. The meds do make him feel better, but they also make him very tired! It appears that Austin may be having some of the c-diff symptoms again (vomiting, diarrhea). I don't think they can be attributed to the chemotherapy treatments any longer so I have to wonder - what is next?!

Austin had another platelet and blood transfusion yesterday that caused a minor reaction. He has also been put on a new antibiotic for another possible infection. Austin's counts still have not recovered from chemotherapy, and he is day +8 post-transplant. The doctors don't seem overly concerned (unlike me - but all mom's probably worry more than we need to). The staff all agree that his body may take longer to recuperate this time around because it has already been "blasted" with so much.

Spirits are down on ward 8B at SickKids today (Austin's "home" for the last few months). Some of our "little fighters" lost their battle last night - it happened all so quickly and all at once. I cannot begin to imagine how horrible it must be to lose your child. In addition to these tragedies, the boy across the hall from Austin, who has the exact same brain tumour and exact same treatment protocol, went down to the Critical Care Unit (CCU) last night after a terrifying code blue (the child had stopped breathing and their heart had stopped beating). It is so scary because it is hard not to think - will it be Austin next time? One day they seem fine and the next moment they are desperately fighting to remain alive.