Wednesday 1 May 2013

May you live in interesting times.

It's been another interesting 24 hours. The chemo I am having now is different to what I have had in the past in that this time the side effects can change from being manageable to problematic and then back again in an incredibly short space of time, it's like running an ultra marathon with a few random, unavoidable and very deep potholes thrown in for fun... Things had been going along fine on this leg of the run, I was moving towards the finish line at a steady pace, there was even a chance that I could make it through this cycle without picking up an infection. I was very pleased with myself. Then I fell into another one of those damn holes.
In the late afternoon I started to get some stomach pain, in the evening my temperature started to climb. Around midnight my temperature spiked and I was feeling pretty crappy. The Nurses did the usual septic screen to test for infection, a broad spectrum antibiotic was started and I was given some pain relief for my now very sore stomach. Not much sleep was had as nurses and doctors of various description came and went during the night to check in on me and to make sure things were not getting worse, as they are wont to do when people with a seriously depressed immune system pick up an infection.
In the morning I was feeling pretty ill and totally exhausted, as an added bonus I started to get some nausea again. I was facing a busy morning of tests, a chest xray, platelet transfusions, red blood cell transfusions and more consultations with various docs with various skill sets. I felt to tired and sick to do any of it but I did it anyway.
By lunch time not much had changed, by 2pm my temperature started to drop and the new medication for my stomach was kicking in, by 4pm my temperature had fallen back to normal and I was starting to feel better, by 5:30 I was feeling good enough to eat something again and by 6pm I was feeling fairly good again.
The finish line is in view again, hope there are no more of those potholes!
Cheers, Pete.


2 comments:

  1. Sounds really promising, hope you get out soon. My turn to visit next, finally germ free I'm sure :-)
    Jules x

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  2. Hang in there Pete. and eat up large.
    Helen

    ReplyDelete