So onward we go, into week 6. The light, I see it. It's the size of a pin hole, but I can see it.
Monday go to Treatments and Blood draws to see how I'm doing. By mid day my labs are back and my white blood count has gone into the sewer. I contact my Hemo-Oncologist office to see if I am supposed to do chemo on Tuesday and later that day they say no-no Chemo this week until WBC go up. Well, not a big deal. Chemo just makes me nauseous anyway. So Tuesday I go do Tomo and that's it for the day, done by 4pm. Kim and I head back to the hotel to chill. About 10pm, I feel feverish. Kim whips out a thermometer and takes my temp, sure enough 100.4º. Not that high so I try to cool myself down using wet cool rags. 1/2 hour later, temps up to 100.8º and 15 minutes later it's up to 101º. Well, when I left the hospital, I was told that if I get a temp again and it hits 101, get my ass back to the hospital to get checked up. So at 11pm, Kim and I pile into the car and head back over to the emerg. room of the cancer center. They're at minimum staffing, great. We're there until 3am. Poor Kim is exhausted. They have zero places for the caregivers to hang out in any type of comfortable chair, might as looked at her at told her to go sit on the floor in the corner. They drew blood on me but the lab was crazy busy as well. Finally, the nurse comes in with these 2 huge and I mean huge shots. They go in your hip/butt one on each side. PAIN. 2 mg each of antibiotic. Then they send me on my way home. I could hardly get my butt into the car. But off we go for a couple hours of sleep to get up for what is now Wed. treatments. Exhausted, we get up, drive back over, get treatment one, and drive back to hotel to get more sleep. Get up and do it again and then back, done with Wed.
Thursday, go into Tomo. Do it and before we leave, radiation Oncologist wants to meet. He finally saw my WBC counts and wants to cancel treatment for rest of week for me to rest. Yoo-freakin-hoo!
Kim and I go back to hotel and decide we needed to get out as well if just to look at four different walls, we plan to go down to Chicago for a couple of days. We pack a little bag and are ready to go.
Kim takes a bag to the car, while I wait in room. No sooner than she walks out the door, my body goes into purge mode. I run to the bathroom just in time to have one of the most explosive vomits of my life. It's like something inside my body just hit the large red PURGE button and out came everything in my gut from about 6am that morning, and it wanted it all out at the same time. I am not going to go into more in depth details than that. Let's just say Chicago was a no go.
Off to the hospital again, and this time they readmit me as a inpatient. My WBC count has dipped even further since Monday, I have a fever, so they (the hopitalist/internist) ascertain I must have an infection somewhere. Hooked by up to an IV, they start pumping me with fluids and antibiotics. It's the first day and I'm here 5 days until Tuesday July 28. 24 hours of no fever to get released and it takes until Tuesday to do it. So while in the hospital, all treatments are stopped. Which is good because my neck at this point looks like a nice 90/10 ground meat wrapped around my neck and really painful.
I still can't sleep but also because someone comes in every 2 hours to do something to me or to check something. And I can't seem to stop the massive flow of phlegm which changes in consistency depending on what sick part of my body wants to take over over the other sick parts. And the doctors just say it's all part of the process of healing. This all sucks and I'm not getting treatments. However, if I get really sick from some infection, what good is treatments going to do me. Rest is what I need and I try to take advantage when I can get some. I guess this hospital thing could be a good thing. Maybe it's the rest I need to finish out here. Time will tell all but for now I must sleep.
Monday go to Treatments and Blood draws to see how I'm doing. By mid day my labs are back and my white blood count has gone into the sewer. I contact my Hemo-Oncologist office to see if I am supposed to do chemo on Tuesday and later that day they say no-no Chemo this week until WBC go up. Well, not a big deal. Chemo just makes me nauseous anyway. So Tuesday I go do Tomo and that's it for the day, done by 4pm. Kim and I head back to the hotel to chill. About 10pm, I feel feverish. Kim whips out a thermometer and takes my temp, sure enough 100.4º. Not that high so I try to cool myself down using wet cool rags. 1/2 hour later, temps up to 100.8º and 15 minutes later it's up to 101º. Well, when I left the hospital, I was told that if I get a temp again and it hits 101, get my ass back to the hospital to get checked up. So at 11pm, Kim and I pile into the car and head back over to the emerg. room of the cancer center. They're at minimum staffing, great. We're there until 3am. Poor Kim is exhausted. They have zero places for the caregivers to hang out in any type of comfortable chair, might as looked at her at told her to go sit on the floor in the corner. They drew blood on me but the lab was crazy busy as well. Finally, the nurse comes in with these 2 huge and I mean huge shots. They go in your hip/butt one on each side. PAIN. 2 mg each of antibiotic. Then they send me on my way home. I could hardly get my butt into the car. But off we go for a couple hours of sleep to get up for what is now Wed. treatments. Exhausted, we get up, drive back over, get treatment one, and drive back to hotel to get more sleep. Get up and do it again and then back, done with Wed.
Thursday, go into Tomo. Do it and before we leave, radiation Oncologist wants to meet. He finally saw my WBC counts and wants to cancel treatment for rest of week for me to rest. Yoo-freakin-hoo!
Kim and I go back to hotel and decide we needed to get out as well if just to look at four different walls, we plan to go down to Chicago for a couple of days. We pack a little bag and are ready to go.
Kim takes a bag to the car, while I wait in room. No sooner than she walks out the door, my body goes into purge mode. I run to the bathroom just in time to have one of the most explosive vomits of my life. It's like something inside my body just hit the large red PURGE button and out came everything in my gut from about 6am that morning, and it wanted it all out at the same time. I am not going to go into more in depth details than that. Let's just say Chicago was a no go.
Off to the hospital again, and this time they readmit me as a inpatient. My WBC count has dipped even further since Monday, I have a fever, so they (the hopitalist/internist) ascertain I must have an infection somewhere. Hooked by up to an IV, they start pumping me with fluids and antibiotics. It's the first day and I'm here 5 days until Tuesday July 28. 24 hours of no fever to get released and it takes until Tuesday to do it. So while in the hospital, all treatments are stopped. Which is good because my neck at this point looks like a nice 90/10 ground meat wrapped around my neck and really painful.
I still can't sleep but also because someone comes in every 2 hours to do something to me or to check something. And I can't seem to stop the massive flow of phlegm which changes in consistency depending on what sick part of my body wants to take over over the other sick parts. And the doctors just say it's all part of the process of healing. This all sucks and I'm not getting treatments. However, if I get really sick from some infection, what good is treatments going to do me. Rest is what I need and I try to take advantage when I can get some. I guess this hospital thing could be a good thing. Maybe it's the rest I need to finish out here. Time will tell all but for now I must sleep.
I hope you're out, sleeping better at the hotel and can finish up the treatments pretty quickly!
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