Today we took Olivia back to the doctor as she hasn't been feeling well. It's been 5 days since her last IV chemo and we noticed her unusual weakness for 3 days now. She is usually not this tired after chemo since she started maintenance phase. She also has not been eating well even with dexamethasone which always increases her appetite. She would tell us that she is so tired and requests to get carried. She has a slight cold but no fever. What we find odd is that she has had a cold before but wouldn't be as weak as she is now.
The doctor says she is definitely fighting an infection that's why she is so weak. She also developed some mouth sores, which is common for chemo patients, that's why she hasn't been eating well. Put those 2 things together, we have an unhappy camper. The good thing is she has no fever so at least her body is working hard to fight the infection.
We were also told that an infection can cause an increase in the liver function number (ALT). We still have to come back to the hospital next week for the scheduled blood work to find out the main cause of the elevated count. Basically right now her liver is working more than it normally should (5x more than normal). Doctor advised not to worry too much about it for now. It gets dangerous when it reaches 20x her normal count. And that's why it's good to monitor these levels regularly.
We ask for your prayers once again that everything with her liver will be ok. Thank you very much!
