This post chemo #3 has been difficult. I have not been able to get back my energy as I had the other times. Monday I was determined to get off my butt and go for a walk with Jeff. My oncology nurse has encouraged walking, even two short walks a day are important.
As we headed up the hill I knew I did not feel well. Jeff was immediately ready to turn me around and go back home but before that I started to go down, I was feeling faint. He managed to get me across the street and sit me down on a curb. I blacked out for a new seconds. It was a strange sensation. He was talking to me and told me he was gently slapping my face. I remember feeling like I was sleeping and hearing his voice at the same time. It all happened very fast.
A neighbor driving by saw us in distress and immediately stopped her car. I had never met her. She asked if I needed a ride home and I got in her van. I told her I was reacting to the effects of chemo. She said her husband was under chemo now too. I couldn't believe it.
As soon as I got home, Jeff had me lay on our sofa. I called my oncology nurse and she did a quick assessment over the phone. I was not short of breath and was lucid though shaken. She spoke to my doctor and advised us to go to the UCSF emergency room on Parnassus Ave. in San Francisco for a complete workup.
We did not leave in a huge rush though I didn't even bring a toothbrush not expecting to stay overnight. Poor Jeff, I felt terrible to put him through all this drama. I laid down in the backseat with pillows under my knees. It had just rained so I was smelling that special earthy first rain on the sidewalk smell and watching the freeway go by from a strange backseat perspective. Jeff kept telling me to talk to him. He wanted to be sure I was alert.I don't even remember the silly conversation I tried to keep up.
We knew it was better to stick with UCSF since all my data and medical records are in their system. My oncology doctor had told them what kinds of tests I needed. I didn't have to wait to long in the emergency to get seen. I was lucky. I had my own private cubicle, room 9. As the day wore on, patients were left on gurneys for hours because there were not rooms for them. The doctors and nurses administered to them in the halls.
My nurse, Thomas, was extremely competent. I had many tests checking for infection, my heart, and g-d only knows what else. The good news was that nothing was showing up. My blood pressure was low and out of caution it looked like I would be spending one night.
I keep wondering how a previously healthy person can get messed up by chemotherapy in so many ways.
They had decided to keep me already by 4pm but I was not moved to my room until almost 8pm. This is the system at UCSF, great care but you have to be PATIENT. It is so interesting how UCSF, as a teaching hospital approaches everything. A team of doctors decided I would stay over night. Several doctors of the team came to speak to us.
The doctors look SO young. I can see I am getting older. They were very kind but the annoying part is one doctor might ask you the whole megillah story and the second doctor might do the same thing.
Jeff asked them the most important question. What made me pass out? They really did not have a pat answer. I think dehydration played a part and the fact that my hemoglobin count is quite low, a typical effect of chemotherapy. It was going to be a long wait until I would be moved to my room. Elana arrived to be with me and brought me a goodie bag with toiletries and magazines. I told Jeff to go home as he had been with me for hours. After Elana stayed with me for a while, I told her to go home too.
I was finally moved to my room around 8PM. Tuesday morning when the doctors came by they had decided that I should have a blood transfusion but could go home later in the day.The blood transfusion would give me a boost.
My nurses were caring and knowledgeable. I ordered food from a menu trying to eat though my appetite is iffy at best. The variety of food one can order varies greatly from Mexican to Asian to standard American fare. I drink constantly and had IV fluids going as well.
My sister Linda came around 9:30 to stay with me She is always encouraging and with her medical background asked the medical staff some questions. . I told Jeff to come in later since it would take a while until I got my transfusion. He arrived around around 12:30pm.
At around 2:30 I sent Jeff out to get some air and to locate me a chocolate ice cream bar. By the time he returned, I was hooked up at last for the blood.. At 5PM we entertained ourselves with the Giant's game and finally by around 6:00PM I was discharged.
I wish I could say, instant recovery from the blood, but I'm still taking it easy today. As hard as it might be to believe, at around 2:50 PM, almost 24 hours exactly from the start of my transfusion, I started to feel like myself.
The good news that my next treatment, #4 will take place next Tuesday as scheduled (hopefully barring any more surprises.) Number 4 means two things...I will be half way done and that is the end of the AC phase of the treatment.
Though this was an expected setback, just like the old Yiddish folktales things could have been worse. I could have been alone, fallen and hit my head, blah blah blah.
So I'm here, OK, determined to get though this and on with my life. I'm sustained by my little grandsons. Elijah just starting eating solids. Saul sent me a picture of him chowing down on carrots. They were everywhere...in his hair, in his feet, all over his face. I said he needs a HAZMAT suit. Little Yeshaya grows by the minute and has pinchable cheeks. He can't stop smiling and laughing.
From what I have heard, the last four treatments are different and somewhat easier. I can only hope and pray.
Go Giants.
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