Let's see...well, shortly before I had my PICC line inserted, I actually ended up in the ER because I had 102 degree fever. I've been instructed to check myself in if my temperature goes past 101 degrees because of my weakened immune system. Fever is a since of infection. So I took myself to Kaiser's ER and left Don a message - it was around 8 p.m. in the evening and he was at a meeting. Our friend Dave Blaker brought Don shortly later and even came back with some dinner for Don and me. That was cool. Our friend Ariel, who rents a room from us, came by around 11 p.m. because he had seen a note I had left Don back at the house. He was worried. I felt so touched by everyone's care and concern.
I won't go into great detail about Chemo sessions 6 through 8. Suffice it to say, they were not fun. As each treatment occurs, the chemo just accumulates in your body and the side effects become a bit more evident. I still feel I suffered far less that most others in my position. I did get sick, I did get weak, but I did not get discouraged. Although, I did get bummed out from time to time because being sick 24/7 does start to wear on you.
About a week after my 7th chemo session, on July 20, I was still feeling weak and was getting more and more light headed and faint. I had also felt a lump in my right breast so I felt it best to make an appointment with my primary care physician to have it checked out and be referred for a mammogram. Since I was feeling weak, I knew there was no way I could drive myself so Stacy was gracious enough to change her plans to take me. Little did we know we'd both be there for hours. My blood pressure was extremely low, they call it orthostatic hypotension, and I probably was dehydrated due to one of the side effects of chemo. My doctor decided I should be admitted into Telemetry for fluids, potassium and overnight observation. Stacy and I waited in a room for a couple of hours until a bed was available. She called Don to let him know that I was staying overnight - he was on his way.
I have to say that Woodland Hills Kaiser's 4th floor West Wing Telemetry unit is the Hilton Hotels of hospitals. Wow! The second I was wheeled into my private room, the Department Administrator, one Glenn Pascual PhD/MSN, was gliding in and introducing himself, the Charge RN, my RN, my CNA and asking Stacy if she'd like coffee, tea, soda, water...Amazing. I was wired with a wireless heart monitoring device and Glenn informed me that he, the Charge RN and the floor RN each have a pager that alerts them if my device goes off. Impressive. I was finally settled in around 3 p.m. and was now starving. The floor RN, Miyeong, was a sweetheart and snuck me in a donut. Sweet.
Don arrived in the meantime and the nurses gave him a big armchair that converts into a bed so that he could stay overnight with me. How cool was that? I had a couple of visitors later in the evening, Chris Miller (who brought my soup from Jerry's Deli - yum), the Blakers, Ariel (who brought Don dinner from Poquito Mas - the charge nurse thought he was the delivery boy, haha) and John Riley (who we then teased the nurse by saying he was the gardner). Since I had a private room, and the staff liked me (I'm a polite patient) there was no limit to how many visitors I could have or how late they could stay. Cool.
I had to stay a second night because the next morning my blood pressure had actually dropped to 74/41 and now my Hemoglobin was down to 8.1 (normal is between 12 and 14) so the doctor, Dr. Lim, ordered 2 blood transfusions. I was SO bummed out now. I hate hospitals. As nice as the room was, I wanted so desperately to go home. Hospitals just remind you that you are sick. I was getting a bit depressed. Don had spent much of the day with me, between running around for work, that was was crashed on his bed. Once he woke up in the evening, I let all my emotions loose. I cried my heart out. We had a good talk, I was able to share what it's like, and he understood what I needed from him to help me. It was great. Later that evening I had 8 visitors in my room! Clay, Angel, Chris M, Chris W, Stacy, John R, Aaron and Ariel! It was awesome. It cheered me up so much! If you look at the photos, you'll see I'm getting an IV drip of blood...gross.
I am truly blessed with such wonderful family and friends. My husband has been such an amazing source of comfort. I don't know how he manages working 60 to 70 hour weeks, having a sick wife and all his other responsibilities. Our friends have been a great source of support for us and I will always be grateful for that.
My last chemo was 8 days ago on Monday, July 26th. Grace, my favorite RN took care of me. It was a rough morning right from the start. We hit traffic at 6:30 a.m. Then when we were in the waiting room for our turn to check in, an older gentleman, Mr West, passed out at check-in. Poor guy had just spent 5 days in the hospital going through aggressive chemo (24/7 - see, others have had it far worse than me) and was back for his outpatient treatment. He appeared to be having the same problems I had the prior week so I started freaking out a little. I felt so bad for someone his age to have to go through all this. It's just not fair. I'm young and relatively healthy. I can handle it. But why does it have to happen to older people? I see several geriatric patients whenever I'm there and it just breaks my heart. Sometimes life just doesn't seem fair.
I finally got called in for treatment and it went pretty seamlessly. I didn't have body aches like I had during treatment #7 so I was relieved about that. Around 11:30 a.m. I was getting hungry so Don ran out and got me Fatburger. After chemo I got a small IV bag of potassium, per my Nephrologist's orders, and then Grace got ready to take the PICC Line out. I got squeemish. Bad. So bad I wish I hadn't had that Fatburger. I threw up my lunch seconds after she pulled the line out. I no longer have the constitutional fortitude to tolerate needles, blood, pain, etc. Oh well, 1 barf attack for 4 months of chemo is not a bad record.
So now it's Tuesday, August 3rd and I'm recovering nicely from my last treatment. I slept for the first 24 hours, but started feeling much better 2 days later. Don went on a camping trip with the guys for our friend's bachelor party and I was glad to see him take a vacation from everything. He came home Sunday late afternoon and just in time apparently, because yesterday I started feeling sick. I'm not much better today. I've learned that you just never know when you're going to be sick in the 2 week period between treatments. The good news is that I no longer need chemo treatment! I get the month of August off to recover and then start radiation in September. I hear radiation is a walk in the park compared to chemo.
Quite honestly, with the love and tremendous support of family and friends, this whole experience has been quite tolerable. I won't say it's been easy because it hasn't. I won't say I haven't been sad at times because I have. But I will say that, despite the downfalls and sometimes hard days, I've been a relatively happy cancer patient. And that's because I have not had to do anything alone.
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