On Thursday, I had my blood labs drawn. Earlier that morning, I woke with some horrible mouth sores, something I hadn't expereienced with the past chemo. My Home Health Nurse was concerned, and said she would call me with my numbers later in the day. As it turned out, my blood levels were really low - I only had 8 neutrophils, and you remember from the past that isn't a good number.
This morning, the mouth sores were much worse and the left side of my face is swollen and painful. After consulting with my next door neighbor (who is an oncology nurse) I called my doctor and she wanted to have me admitted for IV antibiotics to treat the mouth sores and the swelling. With my low white blood cell count, a simple thing like mouth sores can get out of hand easily. I'm in a lot of pain so this time if feels safer to be here because I know they can give me the good drugs. Also, better safe than sorry.
Unfortunately they did not have beds at UCLA campus, so I am once again at UCLA Santa Monica. The nurses all remembered me when I arrived, and I got the biggest room with the best view overlooking the ocean. We hit Memorial Day Traffic driving up here and it took two and a half hours. As you can imagine, things work slowly in a hospital. I checked in at 5:30 p.m., and am still waiting for IV antibiotics at 8:45 p.m. I found out the delay is because they want an MRI of my mouth sores. Apparently I should be going any minute, which means another hour.
If my numbers start to rebound quickly as my doctor predicted they would with this round, I should be realeased after a few days of IV antibiotics. Not exactly how I wanted to spend Memorial Day Weekend, but at least I'm on the road to getting well, and I know this is the last chemo until I'm on maintenance meds.
Thanks for the continued thoughts and prayers. Please pray for a quick resolution to this infection so I can go home soon! KCA!
This morning, the mouth sores were much worse and the left side of my face is swollen and painful. After consulting with my next door neighbor (who is an oncology nurse) I called my doctor and she wanted to have me admitted for IV antibiotics to treat the mouth sores and the swelling. With my low white blood cell count, a simple thing like mouth sores can get out of hand easily. I'm in a lot of pain so this time if feels safer to be here because I know they can give me the good drugs. Also, better safe than sorry.
Unfortunately they did not have beds at UCLA campus, so I am once again at UCLA Santa Monica. The nurses all remembered me when I arrived, and I got the biggest room with the best view overlooking the ocean. We hit Memorial Day Traffic driving up here and it took two and a half hours. As you can imagine, things work slowly in a hospital. I checked in at 5:30 p.m., and am still waiting for IV antibiotics at 8:45 p.m. I found out the delay is because they want an MRI of my mouth sores. Apparently I should be going any minute, which means another hour.
If my numbers start to rebound quickly as my doctor predicted they would with this round, I should be realeased after a few days of IV antibiotics. Not exactly how I wanted to spend Memorial Day Weekend, but at least I'm on the road to getting well, and I know this is the last chemo until I'm on maintenance meds.
Thanks for the continued thoughts and prayers. Please pray for a quick resolution to this infection so I can go home soon! KCA!