Still here. Had a really really bad night. I've been having constant, low level nose bleeds since I started chemo, and have basically been blowing giant balls of mucous and blood clots out of my sinuses several times a day for the last few months. A huge one developed last night and basically blocked me entirely and I woke up gasping for air and with all the monitors and alarms going off and my levels dropped down to the low 60s. It took about an hour to recover from that, and then I spiked a fever - I normally run at at 97.9, and hadn't popped up higher than 99.2 at any point in this experience (they are taking my temp/blood pressure at least 6 times every 24 hours), and I hit 102.9 at about 10 this morning.
So now I'm here until Friday. Things did get better this afternoon though. For the first time since Friday I was able to change position in bed without triggering a massive coughing fit. Leasha and Bob came by for a while and I was able to talk without coughing a whole bunch, although to be fair I think I'm probably adapting my breathing a little bit to modulate that. Either way, not coughing as much has been great for two big reasons. 1) not coughing and 2) stress incontinence from the coughing. I'm really freaking tired of adult diapers and sitting in my own urine all day.
They sent an occupational therapist to see me today and she was really happy with where I'm at strengthwise. The biggest deal is making sure I'm able to get up off the toilet and clean myself properly, which is all fine. It just makes me totally out of breath. The physical therapist came by as well. We went for a walk and up and down a flight of stairs. My oxygen level didn't drop below 90, which is good. My pulse went up to 139, which ain't. At rest it's now about 105, which is better than yesterday but still not good.
The lung team came by this afternoon and because of that fever and the stuff that isn't improving, they are going to do a bronchial scope tomorrow. So they will send this scope down my throat and into my lungs, spray saline in there, look around, get as much of the saline back out as they can, (some sort of vacuum, I guess?) and send that out for testing.
They are also going to be looking at a nodule that they found in my lung during the CT scan yesterday. Apparently it was there on my PET scan from July 1. It didn't light up the way my tumor or any of the lymph nodes did, but it's there. It's not an apples to apples comparison, but it looks like it might be a little bigger now. Unfortunately it's not in a place where they could snip off a sample while they are in there tomorrow, too high up. It could be nothing - lots of people have them. Scar from an old infection, or it could be more cancer. They'll assess what they can tomorrow and then I'll have to come back in a week or two when the rest of this is resolved and they'll do a CT guided biopsy of it to confirm. For that, they'll just poke a needle straight into it from my back. They just don't want to poke a new hole until everything else stabilizes.
I'm trying hard not to flip out about the possibilities there. I am less successful than I'd like to be.
So now I'm here until Friday. Things did get better this afternoon though. For the first time since Friday I was able to change position in bed without triggering a massive coughing fit. Leasha and Bob came by for a while and I was able to talk without coughing a whole bunch, although to be fair I think I'm probably adapting my breathing a little bit to modulate that. Either way, not coughing as much has been great for two big reasons. 1) not coughing and 2) stress incontinence from the coughing. I'm really freaking tired of adult diapers and sitting in my own urine all day.
They sent an occupational therapist to see me today and she was really happy with where I'm at strengthwise. The biggest deal is making sure I'm able to get up off the toilet and clean myself properly, which is all fine. It just makes me totally out of breath. The physical therapist came by as well. We went for a walk and up and down a flight of stairs. My oxygen level didn't drop below 90, which is good. My pulse went up to 139, which ain't. At rest it's now about 105, which is better than yesterday but still not good.
The lung team came by this afternoon and because of that fever and the stuff that isn't improving, they are going to do a bronchial scope tomorrow. So they will send this scope down my throat and into my lungs, spray saline in there, look around, get as much of the saline back out as they can, (some sort of vacuum, I guess?) and send that out for testing.
They are also going to be looking at a nodule that they found in my lung during the CT scan yesterday. Apparently it was there on my PET scan from July 1. It didn't light up the way my tumor or any of the lymph nodes did, but it's there. It's not an apples to apples comparison, but it looks like it might be a little bigger now. Unfortunately it's not in a place where they could snip off a sample while they are in there tomorrow, too high up. It could be nothing - lots of people have them. Scar from an old infection, or it could be more cancer. They'll assess what they can tomorrow and then I'll have to come back in a week or two when the rest of this is resolved and they'll do a CT guided biopsy of it to confirm. For that, they'll just poke a needle straight into it from my back. They just don't want to poke a new hole until everything else stabilizes.
I'm trying hard not to flip out about the possibilities there. I am less successful than I'd like to be.
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