Another Hospital Trip

Well, it happened again, as hard as I tried to avoid it. A little after 3am Friday morning, I woke up with a fever and a throbbing pain in my pelvis. As my white blood cell counts were still very low, it was another trip to the hospital, where I got regular doses of antibiotics until my counts recovered to a sufficient level and I went at least 24 hours without fever. Thankfully, there was no serious infection brewing -- I had no recurrence of fever, and on Saturday morning my counts were good enough that I was discharged in the afternoon, but not before I got a platelet transfusion -- those had dropped to a very low level. The pelvis pain was mostly gone by then as well. The likely explanation is that it was my bone marrow working hard to produce white blood cells. I had some pelvis pain when I was hospitalized during cycle 6, and one of the doctors told me that this sometimes happens as a result of the shot I get at the end of the "bag" chemo administrations to stimulate my bone marrow to produce white blood cells so my immune system recovers more quickly.

This turned out to be the first time I had an allergic reaction to something medical. When I got blood and platelets in the pediatric day hospital (the clinical unit where I get my chemo) during cycle 3, I was given Tylenol and Benadryl beforehand to prevent a potential reaction (a spike in temperature or a rash). This was also the case the prior time I received blood in the hospital (one of the nights I was inpatient during cycle 3). For this platelet transfusion, though, I was not given the premedication because I had not displayed a reaction before -- I'm guessing this was the protocol on the inpatient side. Everything was going well, and then I felt itchiness in my eyes. My right eyelid swelled up noticeably. I also had redness on my arms and legs, and a spot on my left forearm that looked like a bug bite. I called for my nurse, who gave me Benadryl, and later, prednisone, after consultation with the attending physician. I'm happy to report that the "bug bite" went away quickly, and the eye swelling is almost completely gone.

Today, I went on a walk to Central Park in the morning using only my cane for support, and have spent the rest of the day taking it easy. Happily, the walk went very smoothly. It was not as effortless as it was in the video I recently posted, but as I said before, there are ups and downs. This week, I have a number of appointments coming up -- a follow-up with Dr. Healey tomorrow, a blood count check either tomorrow or Tuesday, physical therapy Wednesday and Friday, and a follow-up with my prosthetist on Thursday. Like all of the "good" weeks, I expect it to go by quickly. And then I will get some more chemo.