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10/15/2007 Archived Entry: "Scared then Bored"

Where have I been? A week ago I had a pump connected to my port-a-cath with a new-to-me chemo drug. The pump was all loaded up and would be slowly dosing me until Saturday morning. All seemed to be going well. My grandson Riley went to preschool on Monday then again on Wednesday; Jack drove him and picked him up. But during the day on Wednesday I started feeling stupider and stupider! I couldn't even get my UMPC booted up so I put it aside until Jack got home.

Jack was very worried by my condition when he got home. "Aphasic, lack of time sense." He called my doc but he didn't get a call back until around eleven. Difficulty with speech is a side effect of this new chemo drug but it's a rare one. The doc asked him to bring me in to the emergency room -- I did not want to go, but cooperated to the amount of putting shoes on. We asked our friends Kate and Glenn to meet us at the emergency room and take Riley for the night -- Jack's mom would come up from Oregon during the next day and stay until tomorrow.

By the time we got the call-back I was already feeling somewhat better, and could talk to some extent to the triage nurse and emergency room doc at the ER. A whole raft of tests followed: cat-scan and x-rays and blood tests. A head MRI was the last thing (they have to call the technician in since middle-of-the-night MRIs aren't common). The ER nurse had to call an 800 number to confer with a nurse clinician who works with the pump manufacturer about how to disconnect, reconnect and reset my chemo pump because it couldn't go near the MRI. Thanks, Anne!

Finally it was decided that I would be admitted. Up we went to the ninth floor. When I met up with Jack in the room they proposed to give me, I asked for a mask (they'd given immune-compromised me one in the ER but I'd lost it at the MRI). Oops! They realized that I really should be in a private room and moved me again. By this time it was four AM. I got into bed (but didn't sleep) and Jack dozed in a chair. Another factor, I had a slight fever. What was causing that? I'd told my doc that I'd been having night sweats every now and then, but it hadn't seemed like a big deal.

So Thursday was a raft of more tests, moving up to the eleventh floor (home of gyn surgery and such) and having another cat scan. I convinced Jack to go home around five or six pm. My sister Martha sat with me while I choked down contrast medium fruit drink down (yuck!) pre-catscan. A blood transfusion followed. A lot of the tests were to try to determine the cause of my fevers. It had become clear that too much calcium in my blood was what caused my confusion, aphasia, and some other symptoms. In the hospital they could treat this by giving me IV fluids or by other methods. IV antibiotics were to try to fix any infection that might be causing my fevers.

I had to come clean about ignoring my Type 2 Diabetes for the last little bit, so I got put on diabetic diet (but you still order a la carte over the phone) and got my blood glucose tested and insulin injected. I watched Turner Classic Movies and the Discovery Channel, with Michael Apted's 49 Up overnight on Channel 9. I had only one book! Until my sister Martha brought me some romances for a bit more selection.

I really wanted to go home Friday and was feeling fairly normal by then, but I didn't get released until today (Monday). I was up walking around except when napping during the day. If you are waiting for something to happen, just start a nap. It will happen right away! My course of chemo through the small pump ended as scheduled on Saturday morning, with not many side effects, so if my blood counts and platelet counts hold up I think I'll be doing two more courses of the same drug, with two weeks off inbetween. The fevers? Still mysterious, but probably due to effects of tumors rather than any oddball infection (but I'm still on oral antibiotics for the next week). To prevent the calcium buildup in my blood again? A very low dose of Boniva, the anti-osteoporosis drug, in my case to keep the calcium in my bones instead of in my blood.

Posted by Marilyn Holt @ 10/16/2007 06:13 AM PST

Anita, glad to hear everything's okay! Twitter updates are all fine and good, but lack thereof certainly nothing to apologize for in the scheme of things.

Posted by Wes @ 10/15/2007 08:15 PM PST

Glad you are home and things are under control. What an ordeal -- trapped in a hospital with just one book! ;->

Posted by Karen Anderson @ 10/15/2007 06:20 PM PST

Anita, thanks for the update. So sorry it was such a difficult week. Lots of healing beams and clear head!

Posted by Nancy White @ 10/15/2007 05:37 PM PST