Eventful Tuesday night "sweat off"

Alex here updating you on an eventful Tuesday night. Andy had a full day of pushing beyond limits (aka doing way more than he should!!) and wound up getting himself sick. After making dinner for his parents and myself (a wonderful grilled steak, mash potatoes, grilled squash and salad) and proceeding to drink a little more than he should, Andy resided to lay on the bed for a bit. When he got up to get ready for bed around 9:30pm he was complaining that is was freezing in the house and running around like a little kid in his boxers who just got out of the bath tub and was shivering because he was cold! I immediately knew something was not right. While the house was cold (Andy likes to keep it at 71 at night) Andy himself is NEVER cold. I grabbed the thermometer and met Andy in bed where I confirmed he was starting to spike a fever.

At 9:30pm the thermometer read 99.9; at 10:00pm 100.5 and by 11:30 101pm. After speaking to his oncologist I felt a little more relaxed about the fever. Since Andy had just had his levels drawn earlier that day we knew he was not neutropenic ( low in white blood cells) so it was not a secondary infection coming on. Instead the doctor thought it was a combination of pushing himself way to hard (no way, our Andy?!?) drinking to much (ha, Andy would never do such a thing!) and dehydration. I promptly went to the 24 hour Walgreens to get some motrin, tylenol and Gatorade for my Warrior.

At around 12:50am I turned to the couch (which I was sharing with our Catahoula Blue.....so comfy I know!) for some shut eye, planning to wake around 3am to check his temp again. I was unable to sleep in the bed with Andy because the bed was SOAKED in sweat from his fever and he was tossing and turning about. No way was I jumping in there with that mess, LOL. At around 2:30am Andy woke me up alerting me that his fever had broke. We changed the sheets, Andy consumed a hot pocket (his new favorite late night snack) and promptly went back to bed to get a shut eye before I had to get up in the morning for work.

I cannot say that Andy's fever surprises me. I was waiting for it to all catch up with him. One thing I have learned about Andy is that you cannot tell him NOT to do something. You simply have to let him learn for himself. While he is doing remarkably well having been 1 week out from Chemo, he is still fighting the battle of his life and has a long hard road ahead of him. During one of his groggy fever induced states last night he looked at me and said "I promise I will slow down hun". I believe he will....slow down to 85mph instead of 100mph. Haha!

Today we meet with the Transplant Oncologist to discuss the entire Stem Cell Transplant process. We are all a little nervous about the road that lies ahead but one thing I know for sure......and that is that I would not want anyone else fighting this battle against cancer than Andy.

Sincerely,
Alex