cont'd from January 20th....
Given I had very little in the way of ammunition, I took some Advil before I tucked into bed for what I was hoping to be a good night's sleep at about 10:00pm. I still felt like shit, but I did get some sleep. At about 5:30am I had to get up. This usually isn't a problem even though I do sometimes get light headed when I get up. This time, however, getting up turned into a prolonged dizziness where I proceeded to gracefully fall to the floor. At least that is what Todd tells me after he came to my rescue and saw that I did not hit my head and saw I was still conscious. He still had the balls to tell me that I shouldn't be drinking so much:o). Gotta like the dark humor through this kind of stuff....
After having some tea, I went back to sleep until 9:30am. My fever had gone down considerably and since Dr. Lee indicated that 80% of fevers at this point in treatment are not associated with an infection, I was thinking positive about the day.
I spent most of the day in bed being cared for by the boys since all soccer games were cancelled due to the rain that was now melting all the snow away. My temperature still fluctuated, but it was not until about 10:00pm when it looked like it was on the rise again within the "bad" zone and continued to climb for the recommended one hour waiting period. Also, during the day, I was starting to see some redness where my left breast used to be and it was feeling a little warm. With both these things going on, we started the procedure again with Dr. Lee (I am sure she was not having a good time with this either).
We all agreed it was time to visit emerge again. So I put on my very fashionable sweatpants, sweater, and other fashion statements that were meant to keep me warm. We put Graeme in charge, tucked the boys in bed and off Todd and I went to emerge again. At emerge, we got the royal treatment again and breezed through registration and I was placed in another isolation room while I waited for my entourage of Doctor and nurses. I had been placed in an isolation room the night before too. This is again a measure to try to protect me from the plethora of hospital germs, especially in emerge. I also got to don a face mask for additional protection.
I met Dr. Neil (did not get his last name), who seemed to be on the ball and to the point. He did a quick check of the area in question and immediately confirmed that there was signs of infection and most likely a skin infection (ie. due to the redness and warmth as well as the pain I was feeling). He again ordered blood work and a urine sample, but saved me from another chest X-Ray as the one the previous night came out clear. He also did a simple ultrasound on the area and seemed a bit concerned.
Remember I said there was a poking theme, after getting a successful IV on the second try again, in comes nurse Jan who said she was the "get blood from a stone nurse". Well I would hate see what she can do to a stone after what I went through. In end she poked me four times to get the two good pokes she needed (one failed because she said my vein collapsed and one failed because she accidentally pulled the needle out as she sat down. It is worth noting that hers were the only needles that have left me with some bruising). For the weekend I came away with 9 pokes where I only needed 5. As I can only use my right arm for blood work and IVs due to the higher potential of infection and other things on left due to the lymph nodes that had been removed with the surgery, my right arm was not having too much fun with the blunders.
I digress again. The result of all this was that I was immediately placed on an antibiotic IV drip. As the evening (well morning since it was about 2:00 on the Sunday morning) progressed, I came to understand from Dr. Neil (no last name), that I would need to come back twice per day for the next three days and the foreseeable future to get regular antibiotic IV drips. I would get evaluated at various intervals to see if the antibiotics were having the right effect. So with my new white cell count at 1.3 (lower than the night before, but good old Dr. Neil said he would be more concerned if the levels were below .5 which seems to be a critical level), some more Tylenol in my system, an IV stub connected to my hand, we were off home to be ready to get back for my next IV shot scheduled for 10:00 am in the morning and to be repeated every 12 hours for next few days.
Lots of fun and games, few showers and little sleep for me and my caregiver/chauffeur/husband Todd…
That concludes chapter one of "A funny thing happened...." and the fun does not end there...
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