Seeing as how it's Halloween, I feel obliged to tell you all the scary things that happened in the past 24 hours or so. Yesterday morning, I heard a commotion down the hall, followed by a horde of what seemed to be zombies wandering through the halls. They weren't actually zombies of course. It was a bunch of people with bleach wipes bleaching down the whole unit. Sort of. I don't know what kind of training they got, but they seemed to be bleaching sort of random things. Random sections of walls, the arm rests of one chair but not another. One guy who came through my room did have a lot of trouble walking, so he really did remind me of a zombie. I wonder how he got stuck with this job.
Apparently, the nursing staff have been complaining for a while about the poor housekeeping, and a number of people (including me) have gotten c. diff while staying here. I tested positive again a few days ago after having diarrhea every time I sat down over a hole. I'm back on vancomycin, and it sounds like they're going to try a different tactic where I taper down on the antibiotic over about six weeks. Sounds like fun.
The next scary thing that happened was another blood transfusion. Ok, those aren't scary, but they remind me of vampires and thus remind me of Halloween.
The next thing that happened was a fever. Right on schedule. I started getting some chills a little while after the transfusion, and my temperature was about 102. So first, urine sample. Then I was told they actually wanted a "clean catch" so I had to wait to give another urine sample. Then the infectious disease team came in and asked me lots of questions and examined me closely. Including my butt. I'm glad I do such a good job of wiping. Nobody wants their doctor to see a dingleberry on a pop quiz.
The fever went up gradually, with dips in between. Around shift change at 8pm, my temperature was 101 or so. Then two hours later, it was 106. The last time my temperature was 106, I think I was watching tv with Brent, and I didn't really notice I had a fever at all. I felt pretty normal. This time I felt anything but normal. The whole night was a blur, with a lot of shivering and shaking and uncontrollable moaning. I went back and forth between feeling too hot and too cold. Probably because I kept falling asleep with an ice pack between my legs. Falling asleep with an ice pack on any part of your body is about as smart as falling asleep while sunbathing. My nurse would come in to talk to me and I think I was slurring my words. I asked for Tylenol. And when that didn't help fast enough, I asked for IV Tylenol. I was brought a cooling blanket. Based on my past experience with cooling blankets, I wasn't excited about that. But I sat directly on top of this one instead of having it under a sheet. And it had three parts. One for my legs, one that wrapped around my chest, and one that wrapped around my head. It was set to 68 degrees at first, which I thought would be way too cold, but it was actually pretty comfortable. Time seemed to move very slowly, but it had only been a couple hours. I fell asleep again and when I woke up I peeled off the cooling blanket and got under my regular blanket. For the next few hours I slept uncomfortably on a bed that felt wet with cold sweat, getting interrupted periodically to swallow some pill or other.
When I saw my nurse again at around 5am, she had horns on. And I remembered it was Halloween. And then I thought she must really like Halloween, because she must have packed up her horns the night before so in the morning, on the second part of her shift, she could put them on. I like Halloween too. And if I had my sloth onesie here I would be wearing it. Hmmm. Maybe I can be a chemo patient for Halloween instead. Or Uncle Fester.
Last night while I was fevering, the sneezing fits started. I reminded myself of my mom, who can sometimes sneeze 10 or 15 times in a row. I didn't get that far, maybe only 5 or 6. But that's pretty extreme for me. Now my face is a leaky faucet. Remember me talking about how cancer gets so much sympathy, but the common cold gets none of the sympathy it so justifiably deserves? Well now I have cancer and a cold. So logically speaking, I should be getting double the presents.
If you were eating tomato soup, and your nose was dripping everywhere, and you weren't sure if you accidentally dripped into your soup, would you still eat it?
I'm running out of things to take pictures of in my room, and I haven't left my room in three days. So here's one from better times.
Apparently, the nursing staff have been complaining for a while about the poor housekeeping, and a number of people (including me) have gotten c. diff while staying here. I tested positive again a few days ago after having diarrhea every time I sat down over a hole. I'm back on vancomycin, and it sounds like they're going to try a different tactic where I taper down on the antibiotic over about six weeks. Sounds like fun.
The next scary thing that happened was another blood transfusion. Ok, those aren't scary, but they remind me of vampires and thus remind me of Halloween.
The next thing that happened was a fever. Right on schedule. I started getting some chills a little while after the transfusion, and my temperature was about 102. So first, urine sample. Then I was told they actually wanted a "clean catch" so I had to wait to give another urine sample. Then the infectious disease team came in and asked me lots of questions and examined me closely. Including my butt. I'm glad I do such a good job of wiping. Nobody wants their doctor to see a dingleberry on a pop quiz.
The fever went up gradually, with dips in between. Around shift change at 8pm, my temperature was 101 or so. Then two hours later, it was 106. The last time my temperature was 106, I think I was watching tv with Brent, and I didn't really notice I had a fever at all. I felt pretty normal. This time I felt anything but normal. The whole night was a blur, with a lot of shivering and shaking and uncontrollable moaning. I went back and forth between feeling too hot and too cold. Probably because I kept falling asleep with an ice pack between my legs. Falling asleep with an ice pack on any part of your body is about as smart as falling asleep while sunbathing. My nurse would come in to talk to me and I think I was slurring my words. I asked for Tylenol. And when that didn't help fast enough, I asked for IV Tylenol. I was brought a cooling blanket. Based on my past experience with cooling blankets, I wasn't excited about that. But I sat directly on top of this one instead of having it under a sheet. And it had three parts. One for my legs, one that wrapped around my chest, and one that wrapped around my head. It was set to 68 degrees at first, which I thought would be way too cold, but it was actually pretty comfortable. Time seemed to move very slowly, but it had only been a couple hours. I fell asleep again and when I woke up I peeled off the cooling blanket and got under my regular blanket. For the next few hours I slept uncomfortably on a bed that felt wet with cold sweat, getting interrupted periodically to swallow some pill or other.
When I saw my nurse again at around 5am, she had horns on. And I remembered it was Halloween. And then I thought she must really like Halloween, because she must have packed up her horns the night before so in the morning, on the second part of her shift, she could put them on. I like Halloween too. And if I had my sloth onesie here I would be wearing it. Hmmm. Maybe I can be a chemo patient for Halloween instead. Or Uncle Fester.
Last night while I was fevering, the sneezing fits started. I reminded myself of my mom, who can sometimes sneeze 10 or 15 times in a row. I didn't get that far, maybe only 5 or 6. But that's pretty extreme for me. Now my face is a leaky faucet. Remember me talking about how cancer gets so much sympathy, but the common cold gets none of the sympathy it so justifiably deserves? Well now I have cancer and a cold. So logically speaking, I should be getting double the presents.
If you were eating tomato soup, and your nose was dripping everywhere, and you weren't sure if you accidentally dripped into your soup, would you still eat it?
I'm running out of things to take pictures of in my room, and I haven't left my room in three days. So here's one from better times.
Ok one more scary thing. Whenever I'm on chemo, my phone doesn't recognize my thumbprint. Does that just mean my skin is dry? Or is my thumbprint somehow fundamentally different? Would an ink print also look different? And if it did, does that mean chemo patients can get away with murder? Maybe murderers no longer need to burn off their fingerprints. Maybe they just need to get cancer, then have a round or two or chemotherapy.
I found your fingerprint question intriguing, so I looked it up - and fingerprint loss due to chemo is totally a thing! It’s been written about in reputable places, and even a short item in Time: http://time.com/3823350/cancer-patients-fingerprints/
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteHope you're starting to feel better from the chemo. Regarding the soup question...depends on how hungry I was:)