I Had to Have One Last Adventure!

Just as I was about to sail through the week following infusion #5, my body decided to give me one last adventure—with a new twist!

All was well this week up to Friday, looking like the pattern was going to follow last week, with no real side effects. I’d been feeling a tad “off” but other than that, had energy (I took our club single out to row on Wednesday morning, getting it in and out of the water by myself), and was focused on getting everything ready both for our annual egg nog party tomorrow and our departure for California on Tuesday.

I still don’t know what happened to trigger it, but yesterday afternoon my system fell apart. It started off by having me upchuck my lunch, and then anything else that might have been hiding in my stomach, and then expanded with rounds of diarrhea—so I was loosing liquids at both ends, with no means to stop it! I couldn’t keep any medication down to halt the vomiting or the diarrhea. The nausea and vomiting were new to me in terms of dealing with it--I've had very little of it and nothing this serious. I figured the only solution was to get to the urgent care center so they could stabilize me intravenously—which the consulting nurse confirmed. So Phil took me there about 6:30, completing the opportunities for each member of the family to accompany me to urgent care over the course of my treatment.

Three hours later we left urgent care with me hydrated by saline, my stomach calmed down with medication to stop the nausea, and the doctor puzzled by just what had instigated my symptoms. He wasn’t sure it was the infusion (he thought it was a bit late in the week). They also did blood work to check me out, and he said my blood count was actually pretty good, and I hadn’t lost much in the way of electrolytes (I think I avoided that by getting to them fairly early in the game). So perhaps it was something I ate that triggered the whole thing (I ate out for lunch), and then my system simply couldn’t put itself back together. Wouldn’t it be nice to know so I could try to avoid repeating it!

Today’s task is to gradually put some nourishment back in my system (back to broth, rice, and maybe later even bananas and applesauce!). Phil’s a little anxious about the idea of taking off in the car next week with the potential for me to “go south” somewhere along the way—but I figure there are emergency rooms along the way and we can handle it. It will all pass (I do seem to come back pretty quickly) and my system should start getting into recovery mode somewhere around Christmas.