In the hospital--not too serious

I was admitted into the cancer center yesterday due to neutropenic fever. I actually feel fine now (no fever), but they have me on two antibiotics (Zosyn and vancomycin) and will keep me here until my neutrophil count reaches 500. It was at absolute ZERO yesterday. My fever was at 100.5 to 101.2. I think that there are 2 possible sites of infection. It looks like one of my wisdom teeth wants to make an entrance NOW and is causing major inflammation. The other is my "port of exit (POE)", which is also inflamed. They did a CT of my jaw and upper chest, a chest x-ray, another blood culture, and took urine and stool specimens. Everything's come back normal so far.

I had a reaction to the vancomycin. Usually they give it to you by iv for an hour. About 45 min in, I felt like I was having a hot flash. My head and upper chest became red and hot, and my scalp started icthing like crazy! I was given tylenol, benadryl, and the rate of infusion was lowered. I was talking with Jeannie, and she said I had red man syndrome and needed the vancomycin to be given more slowly. Everything else went smoothly, even the food here is pretty good.

I got a cream for my rash: Sween 24 once a day moisturizing cream (Dimethicone, Coloplast) and another for my POE: Critic-Aid Clear Moisture barrier ointment (petrolatum, Coloplast).I'll definitely be getting the Neulasta the next time around. Right now it looks like the docs are waiting for me to produce them on my own.