Hi Everyone. Can you believe it, I've completed yet ANOTHER cycle of chemo!!! I only have ONE left. This round through us for a loop but I'm coming back strong and ready to have this chapter of my life done with!!
Cycle 13 was a short cycle, only two days. This was right after those horrible storms that took out the electricity. Sean and I were lucky that ours just went out for less than 5 minutes and came right back on. The night before chemo (Sunday July 1) I received a call from one of my nurses that the power was out at the office I would I have to go to the Alexandria office the next morning for treatment. Fortunately the power was restored Monday morning so I was able to go to Fairfax. Sean had taken a sick day since he too was supposed to have a drs appt, so he took me to chemo. The second day, my sis-in-law, Judy, took me for the short couple of hours. This particular combination of chemo is worse than the long chemo combination. I felt awful afterwards. I hadn't had this chemo since before the wedding and yeah, it got me. My red count was really low and therefore I had to get a blood transfusion on the 4th of July at 6am. Sean was off again, so he took me and went and hit golf balls and then came back and picked me up. I slept the rest of the day, what an awesome 4th, huh? On Thursday the 5th, I went in for my Neulasta shot, and then Friday I took it easy since my bones were feeling a bit sore. I do have to say, the pain in my bones has been decreasing with each shot, it's getting easier to tolerate them.
The following week I went in on Tuesday, July 10, for my blood work. I knew I'd be low so I had already made an appt for the next day for a platelet transfusion. The Physician's assistant said I'd most likely need blood and more platelets on Friday so we went ahead and made those appts in the infusion clinic at Fairfax. Little did I know that I'd be headed to the hospital that night and I'd be staying there for 3 days.
My fevers always happen in the evening. Sean keeps the house so cold that most of the time I don't know if I'm shivering because of the temp in the house or because I have a fever. So I'm ALWAYS taking my temperature. But Tuesday night when I couldn't shake the chills even under the heating blanket, I knew I had a fever. The only question was, how high is it? First check, 100.6, wait 15 mins, I had been under a heating blanket, second check 100.7. NOT GOOD. The thresh hold for calling the on-call Dr is 100.5. I called and got a hold of the Dr, he said I could 1) take Tylenol and see if my fever would break, or 2) go to the ER. After talking to him a bit more, he decided I just needed to go to the ER. So off we went at 1120pm to FairOaks ER. We chose FairOaks because, 1) it's closer to our house and 2) the on-call Dr said he'd be there the next day and could check on me.
In the ER, the nurse accessed my port and took blood culture samples. At 315am they said I was going to be admitted and I'd be moved upstairs in about 30 mins. Right on the dot, 345am, they moved me to the Medical/Oncology floor. At this point Sean and I were so exhausted. Once I was settled in the room, he went home to take care of the dogs and sleep a bit. Since I had no idea how long I'd be in the hospital, I had Sean bring me somethings from home. Day 1 - I saw SO many Drs. I had had fevers before but never been in the hospital for them, so this was really interesting. I received two very strong antibiotics, and apparently my counts had plummeted since I had been at the Drs office, so now needed blood and platelet transfusions. So, I received my transfusions at the hospital and of course, in the evening, my temperature once again went up to 100.2. They gave me some Tylenol and I woke up drenched in sweat in the middle of the night. I was hoping that this was the end of my fevers. On Day 2 - I saw all of the same Drs once again and the oncologist said that he couldn't let me go home because I had had a fever the night before. I was upset, but understood the reasoning. I didn't want to go home and have to come back. So, since Sean had gone back to work thinking I would be going home, he came over after work and brought me more of my things from home. My mom, dad, stepmom and neighbor also came over to visit. That night, my fever only reached 99.6 that night and they gave me more Tylenol. Once again I woke up drenched in sweat. Day 3 - Sean took the day off again to spend the day with me. I saw all of the Drs, but much later than usual. First the Infectious Disease Dr came in, told me I still didn't have any growth in the blood cultures and she would release me to go home as long as the oncologist agreed. The oncologist came in around noon and she too said I was good to go home as long as the Internal medicine Dr agreed. So, we waited, and waited and waited for her to show up. At 330pm she came in. She released me and we were headed out around 430pm, FINALLY!!
Over the weekend I just rested. Originally we were going to get away for the weekend, but now, I just wanted to be home. It seems as if whenever we plan to go somewhere I always get sick, but what can you do?
I went in for labs again yesterday. Everything seems to be coming back up. The Dr said I should be fine to receive my LAST cycle of chemo next week, July 23-27.
I'm looking forward to completing this portion of my life and moving on to bigger and better things.
Ok, last round, here goes nothing!
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