A Bump in the Road...

Hi all. Rob here.

First the bad news -- Sue's in the hospital. The good news is she's fine.

As you've read, she's been suffering from a cold this past week, and started running a fever as well. When it hit the magic 38 degrees Friday we called the Cancer Centre, and the oncologist on call told her she was OK unless it rose and stayed above 38.4. Yesterday morning, after several readings in a row above that, we called again and they told us to go to Emergency.

When we got there they ushered us right into a little sitting room by ourselves and Sue had to wear a surgical mask. They obviously take this stuff very seriously. They took blood and urine samples and gave her a chest x-ray and we waited. And waited. Then they moved us to an actual room with a bed and we waited some more. Read every People magazine published from 2005-2008. Turns out her neutrophil count -- the white blood cells that fight infections -- was 228. In a healthy person it's over 2000, and anything under 500 is cause for concern. That her count would be low on day nine after chemo is normal, but not that low. They gave her two rounds of intravenous antibiotics while I was there.

Our wonderful neighbour Rhonda let the dogs out early in the evening and I came home around 3am when it seemed pretty clear Sue was staying at the Infirmary for the night. She just called and said they moved her to the old VG site this morning. She saw a resident and had a sinus x-ray, more blood work, and more antibiotics. A nurse told her they like to keep people for at least 48 hours in cases like this, so she'll probably be there for at least one more night. Hopefully she'll be able to come home sometime tomorrow. Kelly's in there with Sue now, and I'll head in a bit later with some PJs and a good book to help her pass the time.

That's the update. With any luck she'll be home to give you the next one!