When he first woke up Sunday morning, Jackson was in a great mood.  Still in bed, he informed me that he wanted to “drive” his “Mater” car, which is a sit on car made to look like one of his favorite characters from the “Cars” move.   (It's just like the McQueen car he's riding a while back in the photo).  “My Mater,” he said.  He was so excited upon hearing his own suggestion that he sat up, tore off his bed covers, and began breathing quickly in anticipation.  Prior to taking the wheel, however, his wise mother felt his head and determined, “He feels hot.”  

Because mothers are rarely wrong regarding such occurrences, Jackson’s morning ride on the Mater-mobile was temporarily halted while we pulled the neck of his shirt down to access his armpit in order to take his temperature.  Jackson clearly and vocally disapproved of our decision to take his temperature instead of driving the car.  However, looking upon his bare chest we were confronted with an obvious rash as well.  The rash seemed even more sinister because it overlapped with the location of his chest IV tube and its dressing.  The rash also continued on to his back as well.

His temperature was such that it registered near the “cut-off” temperature for taking him to the hospital based on the  UCSF emergency bone-marrow transplant laminated wallet cards they gave us.  But since he also had such an undeniable, and unexplainable, rash, we made the call to the phone number on the card anyway.  Very shortly thereafter, the doctor returned our call.  After describing Jack’s symptoms to her on the phone, she told us to take him to the hospital so she could determine whether he needed to be admitted or not.   She told us to wait by the elevators outside of the pediatric caner/bone-marrow transplant unit and she’d come out to take a look at him.  In so doing, she was making herself available to take a personal look at Jackson while protecting the other kids in the unit from whatever he may have by keeping him in the hallway in the event he was not going to be admitted.  She was also therefore able to keep us from having to spend 9 hours in the ER messing around with doctors who aren’t familiar with his treatment before they admitted us and sent us up to see her anyway.  We really love how they put their patients first and the red tape second at UCSF.  

At any rate, when she saw his rash in the hallway outside the unit, she said it was “impressive,” which is a medical term that means significant.  At work, I’ve had felony child abuse cases where the doctors have indicated the injuries were “impressive,” so once she said that I knew we weren’t going home.  Then she took his temperature and it registered well over the cut-off and she told us Jack was being admitted.  We later found out that the thermometer she used was inaccurate and his temperature was not near as high as she thought, but his admission would stand because of the rash and the fact that he was near the cut-off temperature.

After his admission, the nurse took a blood sample to determine whether there is an infection, and if so, what kind.  While it will be some time before we get those results, they also started administering general IV antibiotics in case there’s an infection and benadryl to help his itchy rash.  In addition to the foregoing, he has also began experiencing an increase in his post-chemo diarrhea.  Between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., I changed 7 diapers.  

He doesn’t tell us in words, but how miserable Jack must feel right now!  He has chapped lips like you’ve never seen.  He has the “impressive,” itchy rash on his left buttocks, his back, and his chest.  All the while, he has a mild fever and painful diarrhea approximately once per hour.

Now that he’s in the hospital, though, they can give him medications to thwart infections as well as his itchiness.  So hopefully he’ll be comfortable soon enough while they get to the bottom of his most recent ailments.    

Please do not be overly concerned at this point, however.  It remains to be seen whether this will turn out to be a big deal or just another speed bump along the way.  Other than the rash, this is the type of thing we have often encountered during Jack’s treatment but simply don’t always have the time or energy to write about in as much detail – usually we’ll just write something like, “Jack was admitted today for a fever.”     

We’ll keep you posted.  Thank you for being members of Team Jackson!!