rockakamille

First of all, check out my cool hennaed head!  Teri and Stefanie are totally awesome, I had a really fun fabulous day.  My hands and feet are all hennaed too, and I got a head and hand message!!!!!!!    *ahhh*

The "T" or Taxol treatment didn't go so well.....
For one my vein kept spasm-ing, which hurts.... so I've decided it's finally time to get a picc line. I have to get blood tests taken and chemo through an IV every week for the next 11 weeks= at least 22 more pokes into the veins of my right arm. The advantage to getting one is they put a tube down your vein that stays there, so you don't have to get a new IV or needle stick to draw blood and your vein is protected a bit from the chemo drugs. I don't know too much about them, so when I get one on Wednesday I'll fill you in on them then.

For two my cold was still hanging around, and I just have very little energy.  Enough so that sitting around feels fine and I can talk up a storm, but I try to do anything and I need a rest.

For three on Wednesday I got a fever of 103, and they admitted me into the hospital!  It was exciting.  First my left breast/masectomy scar area started feeling sore, filled up with some more fluid, and then I start to feel feverish, sore, and weak all over.  By the time I get to the doctor's at 2pm my friend Sion insists we put me into this wheelchair to take me in and I don't argue with her (you can tell I felt yucky!).  When I get to the oncologists they say I'm at 103 and they are admitting me.  They call an ambulance to drive me 1 block to the hospital building and put me in the ER.  There they test my lungs, urinary tract, ears, throat, etc. looking for where the infection is..... nothing seems infected so they start me on two general systemic antibiotics.
By the next morning my fever is down and I'm feeling better.  So yes, I have an infection, but we still can't figure out where it is.  The good news is I'm not Nutropenic (which means you don't have enough white blood cells in your body, and is really common in chemo patients) I talk to at least a dozen doctors, and they decide to drain some fluid from my breast (didn't we do that enough last November? Guess not) to test in case that's where the infection is.  I don't know why but they send me to radiology to drain it.  The radiologist was really the only doctor I have encountered in this adventure who sucked.  Sucked, I say! 
But the docs don't want to let me go home 'cause they still don't know what is going on, and one of the antibiotics they have me on has to be administered through IV.

Thursday I'm feeling pretty good, Friday I actually feel better than I have in about three weeks.  My cold is finally gone, the effects of the fever are gone. So I get to sit around, have my meals brought to me, no responsibilities, and watch movies.  Not so bad, really!  The food is even rather yummy.  At Kaiser they send someone around every morning, and you get to choose from a small menu what you want to eat. I started to feel rather like I was in a hotel.  

The only bad part in the hospital really is the morning.  At 5am someone comes to check your vitals. Then at 6am someone comes to draw blood for testing.  Then the first round of doctors usually shows up around 7am.  On Friday at 7am, at least 7 people came in and surrounded my bed. They were the "surgery team", which means the surgery residents.  I don't recommend being woken up, lights in your eyes, surrounded by doctors, and interrogated about something as important as your health.  

We still don't know exactly what happened.  The fluid they drained didn't grow any bacteria.... some of the docs think I didn't have an infection but that one of my lymph nodes in my left arm stopped draining where it was supposed to.  Others think I did and I'm still on antibiotics now just in case they are right.  I think it was an infection.

So now I'm home, on antibiotics.... with a pretty head!