Day 7.

We had a really nice weekend.  Willie's Mom and sister came to visit and we had a good time.  Willie felt good all weekend and avoided the dreaded fever.  He got platelets on Friday night and had a reaction that made his right eye swell up, but it went back to normal by Saturday afternoon.  We're not sure that we like the way they do lab draws and transfusions on this unit.  They only draw labs one time per day in the late evening and if he needs blood products they do it while he sleeps.  That's the theory, at least.  The problem with giving him blood at night is that they keep coming in and waking him up so he gets no sleep.
Yesterday morning the dreaded fever arrived.  Willie was feeling fine and sitting up in the chair when his temp tested at 38.3 degrees Celsius which is 100.9 degrees Fahrenheit.  The threshold for a fever is 38 degrees so the nurse flew into action.  She took blood cultures to check for infection and started him on IV antibiotics.  20 minutes later his temperature was normal again.  The nurse was baffled and we explained to her that this is just the way Willie rolls.  When he was in the cancer unit for his first round of chemo he had a fevers, but they rarely lasted more than an hour.  He seems to be following that same pattern again.
The fever stayed away throughout the day, but crept back up around 8 PM.  They drew labs and discovered he was silly low in platelets and red blood cells.  This is why we wished they ran labs twice a day like they did last time he was in the hospital.  His counts have a tendency to plummet with no warning and they can go from a normal range to a dangerously low range in less than 24 hours.  We learned this the hard way after his third round of chemo when he had to be hospitalized for counts that took the plunge just hours after he tested normal.
He got a unit of blood and a unit of platelets and his fever tapered off.  He said he had a fever on and off through the night, but it broke early this morning and he is feeling fine now.  The doctors are amazed at how well he is doing.  He has only developed one mouth sore, but he is still able to eat and drink, although he's not consuming much.  They say he is doing 90% better than any of the cases they have seen and that he is the easiest patient on the entire floor.
He is such a champ!
They are talking about putting him on IV nutrition today because he is not eating enough to keep his weight and energy up.  He has no appetite and is really tired so eating is a chore.  Most patients are put on IV nutrition on day 2 or 3 so Willie has held out a long time. 
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.  More updates to come!