Friday (2/11/05)
11:00 AM: Sophie had a good night, and the middle-of-the-night food cravings seem to be gone. She did have a fever (101.3) at 5:00 this morning. They started another culture yesterday at 2:00, but they only do them every 24 hours if there's been a fever, so they won't do a third culture this morning. The first culture hasn't shown any growth (which is good). Her ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count)--which is the best indicator of her risk of infection--was .3 this morning (it's been increasing by .1 every day). Her platelets are fairly low (18), but they won't do a transfusion unless she has visible signs of needing one or drops below 10.
The doctor said that as long as her ANC is below .5 (and assuming nothing grows in the cultures), they will hold her for 48 hours following the most recent fever. Once her ANC is above .5, they will hold her for 24 hours. Given the rate of her ANC increase, it looks like Sunday morning would be the earliest we would get out of the hospital, but it could definitely be longer.