Good Morning,
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I'm happy to report that I did too and am looking forward to a wonderful Christmas. It is the bit in between that is being a bit dodgy. :-) I apologize to those of you who have heard some of this already and promise to keep this brief. (Yeah, right!)
Two days before Thanksgiving I had a chemotherapy treatment. At that time I told Dr. D that I was experiencing shortness of breath more readily than I had been and was feeling some chest pain. She suspected that it had something to do with recovery from the radiation treatment I had completed a couple of weeks before. She prescribed a steroid inhaler to help relieve the breathing which could relieve the pain. The chemo treatment also involves a steroid for two days afterward so I relied on that and felt GREAT right up until dinner time on Thanksgiving evening. My whole upper body hurt! I chalked that up to the amount of housework and cooking that I tend to do when on steroids. (Note for FGP: I was wrong. The cooking had nothing whatsoever to do with what happens next.)
THE MOSTLY DUMB STUFF I DID: On Friday morning I was still hurting and short of breath. Started using the inhaler and took some Advil. After a little while I was feeling better and Ray took me out to do a little (very little) Black Friday shopping. Things weren't getting any better but I kept them under control for the whole weekend (didn't want to bother the on-call doctor or go to the ER). Even on Monday I had myself convinced that I would be better soon. Wrong again! Tuesday I called Dr. D's office and spoke to a triage nurse. She felt, based on what I was telling her, that the pain was muscular but she transferred me to the radiation oncologist's office so he could weigh in. His feeling was the same. He recommended more Advil and said that he would call me on Wednesday to see how I was doing. (Didn't happen). By late afternoon on Wednesday I began to feel the symptoms of dehydration. I called the radiation oncologist's office and reported this, saying that I had an appointment with Dr. D's PA on Friday and that I would request a fluid infusion. Thursday morning I called to arrange that.
THE ONE VERY SMART THING I DID: I had been scribbling notes on all of this as it happened. Prior to going in for my appointment on Friday, I typed it all out and brought it with me. It was very detailed in terms of how I felt, what I took or didn't take, and who I talked to over the past week. Having this information gave the PA a kind of roadmap as to how to examine me, what lab tests to do, etc. She had me set up for the fluid infusion that I had requested and went off to talk to Dr. D about what was happening. They considered a chest Xray but decided that, since I was scheduled for a CT scan this week, they would just move that up and do it that day. So, I was packed into a wheelchair with my IV pole and taken over to the hospital for the scan. (/This is funny. I usually go to a satellite facility of the hospital for scans and am well known to the techs there. When I got to the scan room on Friday I was treated like royalty. The satellite facility had been notified that I would not be needing them this week and one of the techs there called the hospital where I was to give them a hard time about hijacking one of her patients and to make sure that her "friend" would be well taken care of. ) / The results of the scan are that there is some expected and minor tissue damage to my lung, the chemotherapy drug that I am on has stopped working and that I have pneumonia. Very efficient of me to get all this done at once, don't you think? Dr. D ordered two prescriptions for me - a strong antibiotic and prednisone. I am happy to report that I am feeling quite a bit better today. Still have some pain and I do experience shortness of breath but it does not occur as quickly with exertion as it was doing for the past few weeks. I am looking forward to my next appointment with Dr. D. By that time she will have conferred with the doctors at Mass. General and we should have some idea what my next treatment will be and when I will get started on it. There are a couple of new ones with some promise and they just need to figure out the best fit for me.
I think that is it. A lot longer than I intended it to be but once I get going ... well you know all about that I guess :-)
Rita