Tom's Story Part IV

Please remember that I am writing Tom's story about fifteen years after it took place. There are details that are lost to me but the general story is still very real in my heart and mind. Somewhere along the protocol Tom was receiving shots in his thigh muscles. We were told it was made from a fungus or bacteria and it was called L asparagenese. This was an important part of his intense protocol.
He had received several of these shots when after another he began to complain a lot. I looked at his leg and noticed it was slightly pink and felt warm. I called his doctor and inquired if we should be concerned. At this point we were home and going to the clinic three times a week. These were ten hour days of long waits. He would receive chemo in a chair and if all went well we would return home. Somedays tests were not good, white counts were too high and he would be admitted from the clinic. Sometimes he needed blood transfusions that could not be completed and that was another reason to be admitted. His doctor felt it was okay and he received his other treatment and we came home. Sometime during the night Tom began to make a fuss saying he knew something was seriously wrong with the leg. I called his doctor again who had us return for another visit. He again said the leg was okay but because Tom was now in a wheelchair saying he could not walk on it due to pain, we were referred to a pain specialist. The pain specialist said he could take two different pain meds, altering them every four hours. Tom's doctor felt he was enjoying the escape of his situation with pain meds but I was increasingly concerned about the leg. The following day Tom was feeling poorly and I again took him to the hospital. While we were waiting in a waiting room, he looked at me and said that he felt desperately ill. At that point he slumped from the chair and fell on the floor. I began to scream for the nurses to get his doctor which they did. Ultimately, it was discovered the leg had become infected and he was becoming septic. This means the infection was entering his blood stream. He was put into ICU for potent antibiotics. Before they even moved him, they started IVs in each arm which they were pushing the fluids in manually. To say I was scared was a huge understatement. That night Father Fred, the hospital priest came and sat with me. I told him that although I had previously known what might happen that evening it was made so very real to me. I could lose my only child. I didn't know how I could survive that. Father Fred shared a lot of wisdom with me and assured me that God would be with me and I would be okay. That night was the first night Tom wasn't in a room where I had a recliner to sleep. If I sat by him it was in a very uncomfortable chair. I paced most of the night but soon he seemed much better. The following day they moved him to the one private (isolation) room in ICU and brought me in a recliner. He was in there for several days more. I didn't have a phone in there but my nurses who had become so supportive checked on me constantly. As usual my friend Paula who was still there with Danny for most of our hospitalizations, was a beacon of light. Another close call and each one Tom pulled through reinforced my belief that it was God's will for Tom to live. I started to accept that he would be okay.