Waiting to Inhale

Today should be the day after my last chemo treatment.  But it is not.   It is a shame too, since I had some Cinco de Chemo jokes ready to go, but they will be lost forever now - never there to make you laugh.   I will start my tale at the beginning, where most tales start…

Tuesday, April 26th found Malena and me at the Radiation Oncologist’s office where we got some good news.  Instead of 6-8 weeks of daily radiation, I only need 18 treatments!  That is 3 weeks and 3 days!   There was some other news as well.  It is possible that the radiation will destroy a spit gland.  Also, I will not grow any whiskers in the area of radiation.  That’s a shame too, since I wanted to grow mutton chops, like this former president:

We will find out about killing the spit gland when we do the marking and simulation.    Marking and simulation was scheduled for May 19th…

When we left the doctor’s office, I started to feel run down a bit, so I went home and climbed into bed for a few hours.   I awoke and went to the living room where Malena was sitting, and grabbed the temporal scan thermometer to check my temperature.   I did not feel bad, I just did it on a whim.   101.6.   Wow.  Since I was feeling fairly well, I thought that my time in bed under the covers had raised my temperature, and that I would cool off soon.    But the panic flag had already been raised, and arrangements made to keep the kids.   Almost ready to go to the emergency room, my temperature had dropped back to normal after fluctuating most of the previous hour.   We lowered the panic flag and went to bed.

Wednesday, I noticed that if I took a deep breath, I would have an odd sensation in the back of my throat, and would cough.  I placed a call to my Oncologist’s office, and a prescription was called into my pharmacy for a 3 day treatment.

Thursday evening, day 2 of the treatment, my cough got a little worse.

Friday, day 3 of the treatment, I was not improving.  Another call to the Oncologist’s office, another prescription.  

Saturday.   This is where the real fun begins.   I am having difficulty breathing by the afternoon.  I am able to breathe easier if I am on my back, but not upright or on my side.   When I am upright, I can breathe only enough to get a couple of words out at at time.    Malena makes arrangements for the kids, and off to the emergency room we go.   It is packed.   It took 30 minutes just to see the triage nurse!    Being a chemo patient with difficulty breathing does have some priority, and we were in a treatment room within another 20 minutes.   Not bad considering how busy they were.   First into the treatment room was not a nurse,  but the ER doctor.   I guess he thought I needed priority as well.   One CAT scan later, and I was admitted.  It took some time to get the CAT scan, to have someone read it, and to get a room ready on the oncology floor.   We got to my room at 3am Sunday.

Sunday was full of fun.   I had a constant IV drip going into the back of my left hand, electrodes all over my chest, oxygen shooting into my nose, and an  x-ray.  The on-call Oncologist (on-callogist?) came to visit and and told us that he was concerned because pneumonia patients can breathe upright, but not laying down, which is the opposite of my symptoms.  Great.  

Monday I got to see my Oncologist, and she told us differently about the symptoms.   Pneumonia can have my symptoms if it is in the lower part of the lungs.   Another x-ray, antibiotics, constant IV drip, breathing treatments, and oxygen. 

Tuesdays’ x-ray concerned my Oncologist enough to get a pulmonary specialist involved.   His concern was the one of my chemo medications may be causing the pneumonia.   If that is the case, I am done with chemo.  My Oncologist said if I don’t get the fourth treatment, it would lessen my chances of being cured.  

Wednesday was much like the previous days.  Confined to my cell, with time off to walk the halls for exercise.

Thursday had me checking out of the hospital and finally going home.   I have 4 bottles of oxygen here, a concentrator (it takes the air in the house and filters it, and shoot oxygen out through a hose into my nose), a nebulizer for the breathing treatments, and a couple of new prescriptions.

I have an appointment next week with the pulmonary specialist to see if I am improving.   I am, since I can breathe now.  I have learned a valuable lesson in all of this:  Do not go to a hospital and expect to get any rest.   I had people in and out of my room every hour or so checking blood pressure, oxygen levels, the electrodes on my chest, or giving me handfuls of pills.   So I didn’t get much rest.   Neither did Malena – she stayed with me every night but one, when my father stayed so Malena could get my oldest son ready for a band competition. 

My final chemo treatment is  tentatively scheduled for May 19th, which means I will need to reschedule the appointment with the Radiation Oncologist.

Stay tuned…