Where I've been for Three Weeks

It's been a long three weeks since I lasted posted, and I am sorry about the delay. I won't say I've been busy, per se, but it has been an eventful three weeks.

My adventures in the medical world started the day after I started my last round of chemo (June 2nd). All that afternoon I was feeling wonky. For example, I distinctly remember standing in front of the open refrigerator, trying to remember what I was looking for, and then realizing it was my sneakers. Most days I can recall that footware is seldom found inside large kitchen appliances, but not that day.

About 4:30 or 5:00 that afternoon I started shaking uncontrollably from the cold. I was sitting in my office in front of the computer, shivering and shivering. I didn't want to move. I didn't want to call for help. I just shivered and tried to get warm.

Sue got home around 5:30 and found me. I remember getting into bed fully dressed, shoes and all, and pulling the covers up and finally feeling warm. I then slept until about 7:30. Sue got me up and took my temperature, which was 103.5. She called the emergency number for the oncology clinic, and they told me to go to the hospital.

I don't remember much about the next two days. Mostly, I slept. They put me in a private room in the cardiac ward because I was immune suppressed. They tested everything: urine, blood, feces. They sent me for a chest x-ray to confirm I didn't have pneumonia. They were unable to find anything that was causing an infection (My oncologist later said the fever was probably from a bone strengthener I received as part of my chemo). I received fluids and antibiotics intravenously. They let me go home that Friday.

For most of the next week, I slept. I would get up in the morning, have breakfast with Sue or Katie, and then "nap". I would nap from 8:00 until 11:30, have lunch, and then nap from 12:30 until 4:00. I would have dinner and then go to bed around 8:00 PM.

Finally I called the doctor's office Friday afternoon and asked if all this sleeping was OK. The nurse checked my last blood sample (taken the previous Wednesday) and said that my hemoglobin count was "low". If a normal hemoglobin range is 14 - 16, mine was 7.5. She scheduled me for a transfusion the next day. I got two units of blood and felt somewhat better.

This past week I have still been lethargic, "unable to get off the couch". I still napped two or three hours each day. I couldn't do anything more exacting then reading or watching television.

So anyway, that's my excuse for my tardiness in posting. Hopefully I will have less of a reaction to my chemo this next time. My oncologist says that he is planning on cutting the dose. Let's see how that works.