Monday, February 6, 2012


Haven’t blogged in a long time, but now is as good as any. Sit back and enjoy the extended version.
As you know my chemo finished early in Dec. I felt good for a couple of weeks but then early in Jan. I had some weird episode. I was at work  (Thurs.) when all of a sudden I got really cold (but it wasn’t) and started shaking uncontrollably.  Colleen had to pick me up (with the help of Claus) and put me straight to bed. Cranked the electric blanket, took a bunch of advil and slept for the next 12-15 hrs. Once the fever broke I had a wicked headache I couldn’t shake for 2 days. I was very weak and tired.
Probably should have gone to the doctor but didn’t. Was back at work Monday and all was ok till Thurs. – again -  one week to the day, it happened again. All the same; cold, shakes, sweats, bed warmth, headache, weak, tired. Stupid me didn’t go to the doctor and was back at work Monday again.
You won’t believe what happened next. I’ll skip to the 4th episode cause the 3rd was the same as the first two. After the 3rd I stayed home Monday to recoup. I made it through the week and thought I was home free until Sat. when the shakes happened again. I feel so bad that it happened when I was at Myah’s hockey practice and she had to see me shake as we headed home. So this time Colleen made an appointment with my family doctor for Monday. She spoke to my oncologist and they suggested I see him to rule out any infection and begin to explore what was going on…and would later see if it had to do with my lymphoma.  First things first…
Saw my doc, he did a full physical and took a bunch of blood. I felt fine as I usually do on Monday, but he said he would call if they found anything in my blood. While we waited for the blood culture to grow my doc called Monday night and said that my white blood cells were very high. On Jan. 7th it was 11 and now it’s 52. Normal is between 9-12. Not sure what to make of it, we wait. On Tuesday I was at work and my doc called and told me to go to PMH emergency asap. “they will be better equipped to handle me.”  Knowing that PMH doesn’t have an emergency, I called my oncologist to see if I should go to Toronto Western or Toronto General. He said just go to the nearest emerg ASAP!!!!
Freaking out I drove to Markham Stouffville where Colleen met me in emerg. As it turns out, my blood came back and it started growing a bacteria. If left too long (remember I’ve stupidly have had it for 4 weeks now) you can get very sick and, well, you know. So we spent 2 nights in emerg in our own little suite. We were then moved to a room up stairs. The whole time I had to keep leaving the room to go and do tests. I’ve done more tests in the last 5 days than I’ve done in the last 2 years. CT scan of my abdomen and head.….Nothing. Colleen could have told them that. Ultrasound of my liver and heart, full body bone scan, another ultrasound of my liver, Nothing so far.  Blood work daily.  That’s a good sign but they need to find out where the infection is hiding.
It’s the weekend and I’m still here. I’m leaving Monday morning at 6am for Southlake Hospital (Newmarket) for my final test. It’s another test on my heart, forgot what it’s called but they go down my throat to get a closer look. They are trying to see if the infection has rested on any of the valves…….That would be bad.
Came back from the test, and all is good. Wasn’t the best test I had but also wasn’t the worst. So, looks like I will be getting out tonight. I will have my final dose of meds (that I’ve been getting every 4 hrs) at 6pm. Wait till it’s in and get discharged. I will keep doing the meds over the next 2 weeks with a portable IV, again every 4 hours. I will see my oncologist on Wed. for the usual blood test and meet. Should be interesting to see what he says about this whole thing.
Thanks for all the love, prayers and help for Colleen, the kids and myself. It sure made this difficult time a lot easier.
Although, a scary time tons of funny stories from the last week. I will post snippets later.


(view from the patient transport to Southlake)

blog soon
vic

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