Neutropenic Sepsis

We are still living in hospital.
The first week of Brett's intensive chemo went well, albeit, a little too well.
Brett ended up in intensive care, he had Neutropenic Sepsis.
His chemo had made him neutropenic, which it is designed to do.
Lets face it if the chemo doesn't wipe out your blood count it probably isn't going to be getting those bastard cancer cells either.

The major problem with wiping out your blood count is that you have no immunity to anything.
The majority of infections that are picked up wouldn't touch a normal healthy person, so the mass majority of infections that Brett has had aren't even identified.

Usually the only sign of infection tends to be the temperature 'spikes' which means its gone to 38.0 or higher. You can never say if Brett's been 'unwell' as he never feels peachy on chemo, he always feels downright ill its the nature of the beast.

If your not in the hospital when the temperature spikes, you rush to one.
The general procedure the hospital follows is to take bloods for testing and to start broad spectrum antibiotics.

Brett's had that many infections, so when his temperature spiked last Sunday my husband and I didn't flinch.
It was my husbands turn to stay with our son and I was at home with our daughter.
We had our usually chat on the phone and then I went to bed.

15 minutes later I received a call I will never forget....it was my husband telling me to get into hospital immediately as our son was going to intensive care.
I was very calm and collected........oh was I hell, ha ha
I started shaking from head to foot thinking 'what the hell is happening? he was fine when I left'

I knew I couldn't drive the 40 minute drive to the hospital, so I quickly called my brother.
He arrived within 10 minutes.
He sat in my house with my daughter who was upstairs fast asleep and oblivious to the unfolding drama.
My lovely sister in law drove me at top speed to the hospital.
I was a wreak, I was crying and shaking, I phoned my husband on the way and could hear the doctor in the background saying "wake up, stay with me Brett"

I arrived to a calm pandemonium. 
Nurses and doctors were working hard on him and he was taken swiftly to intensive care where we were warned he may need to be put on a life support machine, and we were given the news that he was critically ill.

Luckily he didn't need the life support and 18 hours later he sat up in bed and asked for chips!! much to the delight of everyone in the room.

The doctors believe the sepsis was caused by his gut lining shredding away due to the intensive chemo and this had allowed his own bacteria to escape into his blood stream. 
Very deadly.
Very scary.
Very glad its over.