After 2 blissful nights in our new home I've had a little set back. I was cruising along with little to no side effects from treatment until the afternoon of Wednesday, July 15th: Wednesday, July 15th: I woke up Wednesday feeling good. Throughout this process I've continued to work as is allowed with appointments, treatments, etc. I was working on Wednesday and after I took a break for lunch and to hang out with Avani & Anya for a bit I started to feel a bit off (slight headache, fatigue, cough) . This got worse over the afternoon and around 5pm I was feeling pretty shitty (and now very warm). I took my temperature and I had a temperature of 102. I immediately sent a text to my Oncologist (already knowing what her response was going to be) . I had already begun to pack up my backpack by the time she responded. Load up the car! Family trip to the ER. I haven't mentioned this yet but I'm at Northwestern hospital in Chicago so of course we have now moved to the burbs a...
I had my 1st chemo/immuno treatments on July 7,8,9th. My treatment consists of a 3 drug combo: Day 1 - Cytarabine Day 2 - Cytarabine + Bendamustine Day 3 - Cytarabine + Bendamustine + Rituximab I went into treatment expecting the absolute worst as it relates to immediate & post side effects. To my surprise & delight I had absolutely no issues or real effect other than fatigue (which I've now had for 3 mos anyways 😃 ) after the 1st two days. Day 3 (Rituximab) was not as easy. During treatment I had a reaction from this drug (which is common when it's introduced into your body for the 1st time) . Luckily after a break and some other meds my body took the treatment and I was able to complete. That day ended up being around a 10 hour day so needless to say I was absolutely exhausted! Once I got home I quickly started to not feel well and had developed a fever (100.3). I quickly popped some Tylenol and got on the phone with my Oncologist. She said if my temp went up to 100...
During my night in the ER and my transition to an inpatient room I had to receive 4 blood transfusions. This was because my hemoglobin levels were at dangerously low levels when I arrived at the ER. For explanation purposes a healthy, 39 year old male should have a hemoglobin level between 13-15. When I arrived at the ER my hemoglobin level was 4.8. The baseline (safe) level that Dr.'s use is 7.0. After my transfusions I was now above that level and for the 1st time in over a month I felt pretty decent again. During my stay at the hospital which lasted for a few days I began to see all kinds of Dr.'s roll through my room (poking prodding, pushing, questioning). Luckily, guest restrictions (due to COVID) had just lifted the night I was in the ER so Maneesha was able to be with me in the hospital and hear the info from the Dr.'s 1st hand. A HUGE thank you to our friends who helped out with Avani & Anya (especially Kelly & Ramon)! It was pretty much established that...
Weevil! Glad to hear you are back home! Gotta send some pics of the new house!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you're getting to have fun with the kids - I want to see you going down the slide!
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