June 25, 2003
Today wasn't such a good day.  First, Anthony started complaining about his throat again, and stopped eating and drinking.  He had a little cereal and some apple this morning, but after that, he only had a couple of sips of water.  Later in the day, he started to get a fever.  When it got up to 100.5 degrees, we called the attending physician at the hospital and he told us to bring him in through the ER.  Since he received chemo about 8 days ago, he probably has neutropenia, which is a low neutrophil (a type of white blood cell) count.  When the neutrophil count is low, the body can get infections easily.  That seems to be what has happened here. My guess is that the open throat sores have become infected and that is why he started to complain about his throat again.  He must remain on intravenous antibiotics until the fever is gone, and his absolute neutrophil count (ANC) starts to rise.  Last time he got the fever while he was neutropenic, the antibiotics reduced the fever immediately, and his counts should start rising by Friday or Saturday.  Let's hope he is out before Saturday.