. . . Fever all through the night
What a rough night. Probably the worst night yet. Had uncontrollable chills, and the fever spiked even higher. I was given cross matched platelets overnight, to see if that would boost my levels enough to take the chills away a bit. And then was given another IV dose of a broad-covering antibiotic to combat whatever infection I’m fighting. Thankfully, I had one of my favorite night nurses last night – the one who was on duty the night I was transferred to the Cancer Institute. She was gentle and compassionate, and concerned when all she could see of me was my eyes peeking out from under the blankets. Yup… I was that cold.
I was also in a lot of pain, as the stomach pressure I had been feeling all weekend was still there. My nurse gave me pain medication, and I was able to sleep for a couple of hours. I woke up around 7:00am, and was so weak. I could not even lift the phone to call my mom or call home to check on the kiddos. Was finally able to rally enough around 7:40 to call home. It took all my strength to put on my best possible face for the boys (we use the iPhone’s Facetime feature, which is a way to video call), and made it a brief phone call.
One of my Oncology docs came in about 8:00 am to tell me that one of the blood cultures returned positive for a bacterial infection in my blood, and that they were going to start me on a new IV antibiotic more specific to that type of infection. Mixed news, but at least they found the source.
As the morning progressed, I rallied a bit. That seems to be my pattern – I get these awful fevers/chills overnight starting anywhere from 7-9pm, then I start to feel better by about 9am, and as the day goes on, I feel even more like myself until the cycle repeats. I’m told that is common for my condition.
Red Man . . . and a Benadryl High
The nurse came in about 11:30 to start me on the new antibiotic. She started it dripping, and about 15 minutes later, my scalp started to itch to the point that I couldn’t stop. Now, my scalp has been tender for a few days now, and I am almost certain I will be losing my hair in a day or two. It’s coming out a strand or two at a time, but more than the normal head just doing it’s average shedding. So I chalked this itching up to the hair loss itching. But then my neck started to itch… then my lower back… and my legs… and my scalp got all hot and red. Time to hit the nurse call bell…
So the nurse comes in, and assesses me and stops the antibiotic and increases the IV saline. She paged the doctor, and my resident came in a few minutes later. Apparently, I was having a reaction to the speed at which the antibiotic was being pushed through the IV, known as Red Man. My nurse gave me an oral dose of Benadryl to stop the itching and reaction, and then the doctor ordered another dose to be administered through my central line. Within minutes, I was giggling and could not stop. Quite honestly, I felt drunk. The nurse gave me medication in the little dosing cup, and I could barely lift my hand up to take the pills. And then, I plunked the cup down with such force on the tray table, that it went zinging across the table… like a shot glass on a wet bar. I have to tell you – it was the oddest feeling in the world. And yet quite fun. 😉 But… if you’ve been keeping up with my blogs, you know what Benadryl does to me – knocks me right out. And that’s just the regular dose. This time, I had a super dose… and it was goodnight, Tammy….
4 Hours Later . . .
A very well-rested patient woke up, and actually had a little bit of an appetite. Yay! [side note: turns out that the intense stomach pain was actually due to the ‘pipes’ being clogged – a result of the chemo and antibiotic. Once that was taken care of, pain went away! Sometimes it’s the simple things…] Had a couple of good visits, and then ended the night on a really high note. A friend of mine had been trying to reach out to me all day, and I was just unable to answer because of the medial issues and Benadryl stupor (that still cracks me up). I finally was able to reach out and the short version of the story is that he Skyped me in to a concert in Asbury Park, where a friend of his was playing/singing. And the band did a song, just for me…in my honor. I could not have been more touched, and shed quite a few tears. Along with my nurse, who came in to do my vitals while I was Skyping in.
What a crazy day. Btw, WBC count dropped today from 0.4 to 0.3 – not sure if I’ve hit bottom yet. We will see tomorrow.
In the meantime…
This song was running through my head ALL day:
Fever, Peggy Lee
The Road Less Traveled 
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