Miracle of Levaquin

Last week was a pretty crazy week.  Monday, Wednesday and Friday were regular hospital visits.  Thursday was Tiff's last day of school and I was able to go to her school for the dance festival.  She was in charge of teaching the 2nd grade dance and they were darling as you would expect.  Friday and Saturday Brandon had a basketball tournament in Payson so I left Tiff and Meg in charge of Kevin and watched Brandon play some basketball.  It has been a busy week, but a good week.  Kevin's response to how he is doing this week has been, "Things are going as scheduled."   We recognize this transplant as a process and the process is going well.  The lab work this week all had good results.  The red and white blood cell count is coming up.  His platelets remain good and Friday and today his neutrophils took a big jump.  Friday the count was 1,000 and today they were 2,500, which is actually in the normal range.  Kevin is impressing everyone with his lab work.  All of these numbers are an indication that the new stem cells are engrafting and the rise in the neutrophils means Kevin is starting to have an immune system which is great.  He is still having some slight side effects from the magnesium he takes and they may decide to give him that medicine through the central line every day instead of a pill, but we are going to wait until Wednesday and see how that is going.  On Friday they will take an extra tube of blood to run the first test to see how many of his cells are his and how many of his cells are the donor cells.  At this point we hope to have a 50-50% ratio.  It will take several days for the results of that test to come back, but we are hopeful for good results.  Kevin feels good.  He wishes he had more energy, but he has gone on a walk a few times this week.  We drive Kevin to a park away from our house, where we don't know anyone and he walks around the trail.  It isn't being outdoors that is a problem, it is people.  We are the one's that carry the germs and bacteria.  On Friday, when Tiff and Megan were in charge of  they called me to report that he had been fed and walked.  I had to ask them if they were talking about the dog or their dad.  They told me both. Kevin is doing well!

Today I think about where we were a year ago.  Last year on this date, we were in the emergency room.  In June of 2009 Kevin was receiving chemo but we were able to travel to Santiago, Chile to pick-up Tiff from her mission.  That trip was a miracle in itself that maybe I'll write about one day, but at the time Dr. Frame had us fill a prescription of Levaquin.  Levaquin is a heavy duty antibiotic for Kevin to take in case he came down with a fever which would be an indication of an infection.  We took the prescription with us to Santiago and then again last May when our family took a trip to Mexico.  Kevin never needed the prescription, but we kept it in the cupboard.  Last June, Kevin was to again have chemo in a few days and he wasn't feeling to well.  He thought, I'll just take this antibiotic and I'll feel better and stay on track with the chemo.  He took one pill that night before he went to bed.  The next he came home from work and I asked him about a rash on his arms.  He hadn't even noticed it, but he told me about taking that medicine.  He then said that his throat was a little sore and scratchy.  I knew that strep throat was going around and I told him we needed to go to instacare to get a strep test.  We did and it wasn't strep.  The doctor thought it might be a reaction to the Levaquin, but was surprised that one pill would do that.  The next morning he woke up and his entire body was covered with the rash and his fever was up to 101.  We called the oncologist and he told us if the fever got to 103, we needed to go the emergency room.  That evening the fever was at 104, the rash was all over, his throat was sore and we were at the emergency room.  They dripped benadryl and fluids and still couldn't believe that one pill could cause such a severe reaction.  They kept him a few hours and sent him home.  Over the course of the next couple of weeks, Kevin's entire body reacted to this drug.  He ran a high fever, he had sores in his mouth, his hands and feet were so swollen he couldn't wear shoes, his skin peeled off all over his body; it was as if that one pill had burned his entire body from the inside out.  Dr. Frame, Kevin's oncologist couldn't believe it.  He said he has never seen that drug cause such a reaction and to think he only took one pill.  Of course I spent those couple of weeks asking Kevin, why did you randomly take that pill.  Kevin really didn't have a good answer.  We thought the miracle of this experience was that Kevin didn't take that pill while we were out of the country.  We just kept asking ourselves what if he had taken it in Santiago, what would we have done.  They would have never been able to figure out what was going on.  That was a blessing, but the real miracle was realized just before transplant.  In our preparation for the transplant, we met with the pharmacist at LDS hospital.  She brought in a complete list of medications that Kevin would be required to take and to review the side affects and the purpose of each of them.  On the list was Levaquin.  We immediately explained that Kevin had a horrible allergic reaction to Levaquin.  She was surprised when we told her what happened with one pill.  I sat there and thought.  This is a miracle.  What if we didn't know that Kevin was allergic to Levaquin.  He would have started taking this antibiotic the day of the transplant with about 7 other drugs.  I can't even imagine what Kevin would have gone through as the medical team tried to figure out what was causing this horrible reaction and even what drug it could have been.  Now we know.  Now we know why Kevin took that pill on that day.  This was such a blessing.  As I thought about this miracle, I also came to recognize that Heavenly Father knew a year ago that Kevin would need this transplant.  Kevin has inquired of the Lord about every step of his cancer battle.  He doesn't make any decisions or have any treatments without asking the Lord if it s right.  Kevin has come to know he needed this transplant and the Levaquin miracle was another answer that the Lord knew Kevin would need this transplant and he was watching over Kevin and preparing all things.  Miracles are tender mercies that help us to be mindful of the love that Heavenly Father has for us his children. We know he is aware of Kevin and is watching over him.