With the scans having gone well and the port removal surgery scheduled, I thought we’d breeze through this last bit without problems. Sadly, this has turned out not to be the case.

Three weeks ago, Tabitha, age 5, came down with a virus of some sort that gave her croup. I had her with me while visiting my other daughter Valerie, who is away at college.

When we returned, I put Tabitha in the quarantine room in an attempt to prevent the rest of the family from falling ill. Her little sister Elizabeth, however, had other plans.

After Elizabeth got sick, then I got sick, followed by Peter, Ella, Andrew, and Adam. For some, it was no worse than a brief cold. For me, it has been a long, drawn out healing process. Over two weeks after having first succumbed, my congestion is almost at an end. This is my third illness this year, which I attribute to prolonged stress.

Earlier this week I heard through the grapevine that the hospital was canceling “non-essential” surgeries. I think whoever was deciding which surgeries were non-essential didn’t bother to consult with the doctors. So, when I received a call from the surgery department informing me that Eli’s surgery to remove his port had been cancelled, I mustered my superpowers to convince them that it was, indeed, essential. They verified with his oncologist and was put back on the schedule.

The reason why it’s important to get his port out is because it needs to be accessed and flushed at least monthly (we didn’t have plans to return until the next set of scans in June). While I could theoretically do the accessing and flushing, I have limited supplies and leaving the port in increases the risk of infection. In fact, if Eli were to get a fever for any reason, we would have to take him to the hospital to treat for possible infection and verify the cause of the fever.

With the surgery back on, the only thing to worry about was his getting a fever before his surgery. On Thursday, Eli indicated that he thought he might be getting sick. On Friday, he had started to become congested, so, when the surgeon’s office called with pre-op instructions, I had to tell them he was getting sick. After consulting with the oncologists and surgeon, it was decided to postpone the surgery.

Now, we pray that he doesn’t get a fever. His temperature has gone up a bit, but hasn’t reached the magical 100.4 which would necessitate a call to the oncology department and trip to the clinic or ER (if outside of clinic hours).