Hello Everyone!
It has been quite a week - one I will wish never to repeat.
I feel rather epic this week so I will begin with "Whence last you joined me here at the blog' I was shaky but on the 'upswing' so to speak after re-hydrating. Late on the Wednesday however I started to develop a cough and by Thursday we were calling in to my med team as I was maintaining a fever of 101 and anything over 100 in my new world is a no-no.
So, I was prescribed an antibiotic and began that immediately. On the Friday I went into the hospital for more fluids but was still running a fever that steadily increased into Valentines day - another call into the med team on Saturday and a 2nd antibiotic was prescribed to take in tandem with the 1st one. Should have been overkill right? Nuh-uh. By Saturday evening instead of a great dining experience @ my brother-in-laws (Happy Birthday Mike - I bet Pete forgot to call you on Wednesday, huh?), I was running a fever over 104 through the night and alternating between drenching the sheets and freezing to death. As much fluid as I was trying to get into me, the fever was taking it away at a far more rapid pace.
I was awake for most of the night with the cough and difficulty breathing and by the time Pete's alarm went off at 6am I was so on fire I asked Pete to draw me a cool bath and I crawled in to the bathroom to get in the tub with some tylenol. The bath and the tylonel worked to cool me down for a few hours but by early afternoon my fever was back up again to 103 and my breathing was laboured so with Pete working my Mom and Aunt took me to emergency that Sunday afternoon.
The moment @ emergency reception that I told them that I was pre-stem cell transplant, they took a tact and care protocol with me that I can say would rival any top class care facility in this country or the U.S. Now, granted, there was 'no room at the Inn' so I spent three days on an emergency stretcher in their resuscitation room (isolated) instead of a hospital room but other that, I can only praise the doctors and nurses (other than 1, who I shall refrain of speaking of) for their skill, compassion and true caring for me.
As I just said above, I was bad off enough to be kept in until Tuesday, I was badly dehydrated as well as riddled with some infection so they IV'd me immediately and pumped 5 bags of fluid into me back-to-back-to-back (etc.) plus IV's of antibiotics every 8 hrs plus continued fluids. I was discharged Tuesday afternoon and placed on new doses of the same antibiotics as pre-hospitalization, just higher doses, until next week.
So, what does this mean chemo treatment wise? Well, I saw Dr. Fraser and Carol yesterday @ Juravinski and they are slightly delaying my next chemo. I will go for blood tests again next Wednesday and if my counts have rebounded and my chest is clear (cough/wheezing gone) then we will proceed with chemo on that Thursday. Otherwise they will cancel and defer me to the following week, which will bump everything by about a week in the calendar but c'est la vie.
Must say, despite the actual DAY of valentines being a total write-off (Pete and I aren't super mushy about that stuff anyways - you know us) I have to say it was a great week to see once again how much I am loved. Beautiful cards with thoughtful messages, roses from Pete, sweet cards/drawing from my son, - love was all around me.
Today, I was at a followup appt with one of the hospital doctors @ his office and in walked one of the nurses from the hospital with her son. Her name is Sheila and she hugged me in that waiting room and genuinely cared -what a great capacity for caring from a total stranger, amazing. Her son may be going through some medical problems so as you are so kind to say a prayer or think a good thought for me -please think of her and her son as well. She is the type of lady who deserves some good karma.
Thank you all for reading and supporting and Happy Valentines Week-
Carey
4 years ago
