Good news, bad news

Tuesday July 28th, 2010


After another restless night, mind you I had to sleep with the Huber needle still accessed in my portacath, don't want to roll over onto that. I woke to go for my follow up appt., Dad drove & I told him how I was feeling a little off kilter, so he dropped me off closer to the building before he parked. I got my labs and my vitals showed that my heart rate was still in the 120's I gained 5 lbs since the day before, they believe it's from the fluids but my ankles and feet weren't swollen, and I had 5 temperatures taken ranging from 100.1F in my L ear, to 98.2 under my tongue, to 99.8FF in my R ear by one nurse. She said to wait in the lobby. I asked her if I could eat some crackers, she said, "Yes". So I ate a few. The 2nd nurse checked my temp. under my tongue and got 100.6F, then we waited 5 minutes and it was 98.3F. My abdomen, for once, wasn't very tender to touch. I went over the medication with Vera to make sure I have everything I needed, since pharmacy was closing the day before. I did pay for the meds today. However, when she listened to my lungs, she heard crackles in my R lung. She wants to give me one tablet of Lasix, a diuretic (meaning a pill that pulls the excess fluid from your body & you urinate like a racehorse for a while). I was informed that it has some cross reactions of another medication that I'm allergic to called Bactrim. I get rashes from Bactrim, an antibiotic. I had asked her if there's anything else I can try to avoid the potential rashes and she said parsley, about a 1/4 cup. I'd rather give that a try.

My hemoglobin is slowly going down and I may need a blood transfusion if it keeps trending that way. Another solution would be to get Epogen injections which I might have mentioned before in my blog but again, that could cause DEATH, so I'll try the transfusions first, if the need be. Needless to say, I was given the green light to go home, no extra fluids and I got the Huber needle taken out of my chest. Yeah, now I can shower.


My cell phone was on the fritz and I was using my sister's old cell phone. Her newly charged cell phone was dead by the time my appt. was over. What the heck. I found out later that being in certain environments wear down batteries quicker ie. being around medical equipment, in basements where reception is poor, etc.. I was still feeling "woosy" so dad brought the car around to get me and then let me borrow his cell phone. He had a message from Jenny that Widdo Poopie had a swollen face and was breathing weird so Marie, who happened to be home, rushed him to the vet. Where he received a Betalog shot, which he's had multiple times in the past and had no problems. On the way home from my appt. we went to get lunch & pick up Widdo. Dad got hot dogs from the Hot Dog Stand that I had mentioned earlier. I had to wait for Widdo so he went home & told me to call him when I was done. When I saw Widdo he had red spots in his L ear, hives on his abdomen, penis & his L eye was swollen. My vet didn't have any Benadryl in the office, he just came back from taking care of his ill mother-in-law and the fill in vet, if she used it all, didn't replace it. So he recommended Benadryl OTC (over the counter). Now I was wondering if the hives were due to the Betalog shot he just got, could it have been a delayed reaction from the penicillin shot or the Triamcinlone pill he received yesterday?

Either way, I called dad to come get us. We were on the way to get the Benadryl when I asked him to take us to another vet where they're open longer hours and would have Benadryl for him. They took me relatively quickly and gave him the medicine. We waited 30 minutes and his skin was back to normal. Sigh of relief. I had been to this office before for the dogs and cats when my vet was closed. Some of the veterinarians had gotten to know me very well and I told them of my cancer journey. One in particular, her speech gave me words of encouragement and she said that I was still looking good for what I've been going through. I thanked her for all she's helped me with and she wished to continue seeing me, to help with with my pets and gave me a hug.
Dad & I had stopped briefly @ Walgreens to get the children's Benadryl and we ran into our sister. Dad kept Widdo in the car with him almost forgetting that the dog couldn't go inside. Doh!


Now can I go home and eat? The hot dog wasn't as good as I was expecting but it got in my belly. I was going to rest, made a few more phone calls, then my sweetie, Gabriel, yes, he has a name :o), came by to visit. He let me rest my legs on his lap while I laid down on the couch & I kept getting more calls. He was dozing and so was I. My dogs had gotten on each side of him. We could've fallen asleep when dad called that dinner was ready. We chatted about our days, lab findings, his relative coming to visit, etc.. He didn't stay for dinner which was smart, it was blended leftovers from the past few dinners stir fry. I walked him to the door, we hugged & kissed "Good Bye".


I was feeling quite nauseated after dinner, no it's NOT due to dinner, this nausea after chemo has hit me quicker this time, last time it was good 3 days after receiving it before I had to take the Compazine, so I took one tonight. I didn't have problems sleeping. Just as a precaution, since Widdo is on Benadryl & I'm feeling nauseated, I changed my sleeping arrangements to the couch. I didn't need him rolling off the bed & I wanted to be closer to the bathroom in case the pill didn't cure it. Come on day #5, that's when the nausea usually goes away.

Thank you God for getting me through another day. As wobbly & worrisome as it was, it's over. Another day tomorrow, let's see what it brings.