Hospital Admission was just a big mistake

I spoke with the doc covering for my oncologist's office this morning after my post and she told me when she talked with Urgent Care about the blood test results last night, they initially said the ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count) was 700. They later said it was 300, which would require hospitalization. They couldn't explain that discrepancy to the doc satisfactorily so she had to admit me to run their own tests.

After IV antibiotics last night and further blood tests this morning, my ANC is low, but not so low as to require hospitalization. My total white blood cells had improved overnight so I was already on the mend. So they discharged me at 11:30. Needless to say, I pretty pissed at Urgent Care. The gave me a sleepless night, a bunch of stress, another sick day used over nothing.

Greetings from the hospital again

After chemo last week, I would normally start feeling better by Tuesday, but this go around, I didn't perk up as soon as I should have. In fact, I got a sore throat and started running a low grade fever by Tuesday evening. I ended up missing work all week. I felt a little better Saturday morning and met some friends for an event, but left early and crashed again after I got home. Felt bad all day Sunday as well. By Sunday night my throat was so sore I finally took a vicodan and was able to gt some sleep. Yesterday morning I felt much better, though I had no voice. I went to work and held up pretty well, though all the talking really made my throat hurt by the end of the day.

I was scheduled for a blood test at the oncologist's and I asked them about the sore throat. They said to see my primary care physician if I wanted treatment for that. After the test, they called and left a message that my white blood cell count was "a tad bit low" and I should see my primary care physician. I didn't get that message until after 5 because my voice mail is screwed up. So I got the earliest appointment I could get which was Wednesday morning. In an abundance of caution I decided to call the consulting nurse at Group Health to see if it was ok to wait that long. She told me to go to Urgent Care that night. After 4 hours and a bunch of tests, turns out my neutrofils were alarmingly low. They talked with the oncologist's office and had me admitted to Swedish about 1am. Got about 2 hours of sleep last night.

Spoke with the resident this morning and they are still running tests looking for signs of infection. They will give me a shot to boost my production of white blood cells, then let me go when my counts are closer to normal. I'm not looking forward to this. I hear those shots hurt.

Out of the Hospital after Round 1

I had high hopes of getting out early this time given that all the chemo orders got submitted early and I was showing up at 8am. I had my port accessed shortly after 9am... and the waiting commenced once again. From 9am to 2pm... nothing. Finally the pre-meds began a little after 2pm. Major frustration. I didn't finish the Taxol until 6:30 in the evening. Then... more waiting. The carboplatin had not been mixed yet and it was shift change. Finally we started with more pre-meds and the carboplatin commenced at 9pm. That put me on a release schedule of about 2pm Saturday afternoon. It also assured I would be awakened repeatedly all night. They gave me a big dose of benedryl to knock me out, then woke me up every 45 minutes to either take vital signs or change the carbo bag until 1:45 in the morning when they started the final bag. They decided to run it at a 10 hour rate instead of the usual 12 hour rate which put me back on pace to be out of there before noon. And from that point, I was only awakened every hour and a half for vital signs. Despite that, I still felt like I slept OK. I was so zonked from the drugs I barely woke when needed and fell right back to sleep. I love the night nurse. I remember her from my last go around.

I got a visit from the doc making rounds about 7am and got up and ordered breakfast. Then I got a surprise visit from my oncologist, too. That was nice of him to visit me while seeing his surgical patients. I asked about my CT scans and he said he got them, and didn't remember there being anything noteworthy in them. He also noticed my iPad and asked about it. I showed him a few things and said I loved it. By the time he left he said he would probably be getting one soon. Ha!

So I finished the last bag and they had everything ready to check me out. The nurse came right in, removed the access needle and I was on my way before noon.

I have decided I just need to be zen about the whole thing and just anticipate being there until Saturday around noon each time. I might try telling the nurse I will be downstairs until noon and to call if they get things ready earlier. That 5 hour wait drove me nuts. They did a good job of keeping me medicated and hydrated this time. That was encouraging. They even gave me a new 3 day nausea med, twice, and the usual zofran.

So now to get through the next 3 days. Sunday night to Monday night should be the worst. Then I climb out of the hole slowly... then wait to lose my hair again. Boo-hoo!

Chemo Begins Again August 6th

I saw my oncologist on Friday and went through the current treatment plan. I will return to taxol/carboplatin with the first infusion occurring this Friday, the 6th. It will be with the overnights at Swedish Hospital. I've already done the bloodwork and the orders should be in when I check in Friday morning at 8am, so I'm hoping they can manage to get this round done and have me out of there by Saturday MORNING for a change. I'm doing a CT Scan tomorrow for a baseline (things may have been growing since the last one on May 20th) and we'll probably do another after 3 treatments to see if it's working this time around. He had me stop with the hormones saying he doesn't believe they are working to control growth any longer.

My sister will be in town this weekend for a couple Seattle Storm games. I'll make the Thursday one, but doubt I'll feel up to Saturday night's game. The Blue Angels are in town for Seafair next weekend and I hope to get a good show from my hospital room. :-)

Sounded like my doc was thinking of giving me another week to recover from radiation, but I needed to start this week to be able to make my trip to Kodiak in September during a feel good part of the cycle. The sooner I get started, the sooner I'll be done. If things stayed on track, my last treatment would be the Friday before Thanksgiving so I could be feeling better for Christmas. Lets hope anyway.

Radiation update

Just a week left, but it's started to kick my butt energy wise. I don't remember being this tired the first couple times I did this, but I was doing chemo, too, then, and probably blamed the chemo more than the radiation. My hip is doing pretty well. Every now and then I'll have a stiff day, but I think it's getting better.

I called my oncologist about starting chemo and he says ideally they would want to start 3 or 4 weeks after finishing radiation. I rescheduled our trip to Kodiak to September so we can be in Kodiak for my sister's birthday and will just ask him to work around that trip. That means starting sometime in mid August. I would just as soon get it over with and to do it in the "ideal way" rather than take a break right now.

MRI results -- a bit of good news

I had an MRI today. The process was miserable. The headrest pad was too thin and the back of my head really started aching before we even got to the contrast dye portion of the test. FINALLY we got there and I only had about 10 minutes left. Then about a minute from the end, the tech comes on and says the contrast did not inject so we had to start that section over. Another 11 minutes on the table with no break. I was pretty miserable. As it was, I finished about 2:30 and had to be at the cyberknife Doc's appointment at 3:00. I rushed over there with a little time to spare.

The reward was that my head tumor is STILL "rock solid stable". Sweet! What I love about this Doc is that she always takes the time to answer questions and show me the scans to explain everything thoroughly. She confirmed for me that there has been no change in the spleen tumor. So only the hip and a tiny 1 cm tumor on the right side had grown any. She was very positive that this round of radiation would either kill or send into another long remission the tumor in my hip. She was also confident that I wouldn't have chronic pain there. She said I should take it easy, but it should be feeling better once radiation is finished.

What's more, she thinks the hormoe therapy is still being effective. She said sometimes if you have multiple tumors some will grow while others are responding to the treatment. She suggested asking the oncologist to delay chemo until the end of summer. "Scan it again in 10 weeks and take it from there." I'm sure I'll bring that up. :)

All in all a big mood booster when I really needed it. :-)

One Week Down, Four to Go

Finished my first week of radiation today and I can sure tell. My hip has been much sorer, even by the weekend. It was really bugging me last night and I had to up the dose of ibuprofen and make sure I stay on top of it. I do remember it getting worse when I did this back in 2008, but then it the pain went away completely. What makes me nervous was the doc's prediction that I would have chronic pain after this. Just how much remains to be seen. So that has me stressed out a little.

The sessions themselves are more trying, too. Lying still when my back hurts for 20 minutes wears me out each morning. Four weeks seems like a long time today.