Wednesday proved to be another bad day. I got home from the hospital Tuesday afternoon, and still felt like absolute crap. Almost couldn't make it up the stairs. I felt like I gained a hundred pounds and couldn't lift my feet enough to clear the steps. I also could not physically step into the bath tub. Even at my worst, these had never been problems before.
So Wednesday morning we got up early to go for my check in with the oncologist. She wants me to do twelve more weeks of chemo - carboplatin, four rounds, once every three weeks. She also noticed when I got there that I was bleeding through my shirt. The incision on my left side started oozing again. And she also noticed that my hemoglobin was at 7.1 when I left the hospital on Tuesday and was appalled they let me go. So she ordered two units of blood for me. That took the rest of the day to accomplish. The infusion itself was five hours start to finish. We got home around 10:15 that night.
The transfusion did help me feel better - now I'm about at the same level of energy as I was around the pulmonary crash in october. I cannot believe that I'm saying this is better, but it is and I'll take it.
Yesterday I put on my clean pajamas and went to meet my folks for lunch - they're driving through on their way home for the summer. I can't put real clothes on - still too many open wounds, scabs, stitches, leaky bits, so I'm parading around town in flannel pjs from lands end.
This morning I woke around 2:30 to discover the enter left side of my body was wet. I got up to look and there was fluid just freely running out of the incision on my left side. This isn't the same stuff that was coming out of the drain - that was more fresh, dark blood. This was watery brown used up blood. So I called and woke my surgeon up and she told Bob how to redress it, and then we drove back down to the hospital at 7 this morning where she pulled a bunch more fluid out of the wound (nothing infected, thank goodness) and dressed it again. And then we came home.
Assuming nothing goes wrong this weekend, my next trip outside the house will be Monday morning when we go see the radiation oncologist, and then in the afternoon we check in with the surgeon again. Wednesday I check in with the gyno surgeon and start talking about hormone replacement options.
This week I have to cancel the reconstruction surgery. We'll set it up again for after I'm done with chemo. Everyone agrees that I'm not starting chemo again until I'm 100% recovered from where I am now, which should be 2-3 weeks at the least.
For now, I am so goddamned tired. I can't really sleep. I'm not in enough pain to take anything for it and I'm tired of the opiate fog. My eyes are constantly watering but I'm not crying.
My goals for the next 72 hours are to stay hydrated and eat some small amount of animal protein at every meal. That's it, and it's a pretty high bar at the moment.
So Wednesday morning we got up early to go for my check in with the oncologist. She wants me to do twelve more weeks of chemo - carboplatin, four rounds, once every three weeks. She also noticed when I got there that I was bleeding through my shirt. The incision on my left side started oozing again. And she also noticed that my hemoglobin was at 7.1 when I left the hospital on Tuesday and was appalled they let me go. So she ordered two units of blood for me. That took the rest of the day to accomplish. The infusion itself was five hours start to finish. We got home around 10:15 that night.
The transfusion did help me feel better - now I'm about at the same level of energy as I was around the pulmonary crash in october. I cannot believe that I'm saying this is better, but it is and I'll take it.
Yesterday I put on my clean pajamas and went to meet my folks for lunch - they're driving through on their way home for the summer. I can't put real clothes on - still too many open wounds, scabs, stitches, leaky bits, so I'm parading around town in flannel pjs from lands end.
This morning I woke around 2:30 to discover the enter left side of my body was wet. I got up to look and there was fluid just freely running out of the incision on my left side. This isn't the same stuff that was coming out of the drain - that was more fresh, dark blood. This was watery brown used up blood. So I called and woke my surgeon up and she told Bob how to redress it, and then we drove back down to the hospital at 7 this morning where she pulled a bunch more fluid out of the wound (nothing infected, thank goodness) and dressed it again. And then we came home.
Assuming nothing goes wrong this weekend, my next trip outside the house will be Monday morning when we go see the radiation oncologist, and then in the afternoon we check in with the surgeon again. Wednesday I check in with the gyno surgeon and start talking about hormone replacement options.
This week I have to cancel the reconstruction surgery. We'll set it up again for after I'm done with chemo. Everyone agrees that I'm not starting chemo again until I'm 100% recovered from where I am now, which should be 2-3 weeks at the least.
For now, I am so goddamned tired. I can't really sleep. I'm not in enough pain to take anything for it and I'm tired of the opiate fog. My eyes are constantly watering but I'm not crying.
My goals for the next 72 hours are to stay hydrated and eat some small amount of animal protein at every meal. That's it, and it's a pretty high bar at the moment.
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