First off, I was off on my days. Today is day 12. That matters because they track your days to your symptoms.
They gave me this at the Wasabi place. It shows which days my blood counts are the lowest and when I start to recover. So today being day 12 I’m literally in the upswing.
Today’s blood test was at the lab vs ER. This is where all my doctor’s offices are.
It’s really similar to the Poly Clinic in Seattle. And it’s a ten minute walk from our apartment.
This is the view from the waiting room which I spent a lot of time in because I also had an appointment with the doctor that installed the port who took me late.
This was the view from his office. I was like before you examine me. I’m going to spend a few minutes in this view.
I only had one tiny fever today and it went down on its own without Tylenol so that is great!
Next question is, will I lose my hair? If so it will start in these next days. My scalp is feeling tingly weird which is the first symptom before it falls out. So we’ll see.
At this point I will be ok with it. I haven’t dyed my gray roots or gotten a haircut because Murphys Law and I’m not sure dye would be bad for my scalp. So my hair looks crazy and I’ve gotten some great beanies, and a wig. So I’m ready. We should know in a few days.
Due to covid and all this cancer stuff I haven’t been out on a Saturday night in a long time. So this was exciting although not really where I hope to spend another Saturday or other night.
I realized this must be the urgent care part of the hospital. It’s a giant modern hospital. This can’t possibly be the ER where an ambulance would take you. When you type the address in Uber they don’t freak out and drive fast. And the people in the waiting room looked like me. Sick but not desperate.
It all started with a fever and text exchange with my doctor. Even at 6:00pm on a Saturday night he was willing to text with me.
Two minutes after this text it went up to 38.
While Sven is a sloth around town this was his first Uber ride.
In the waiting room he insisted on coming out of his backpack.
After more blood draws and urine samples we waited for results and Sven has a quick checkup as well.
And then it was back home with a prescription for different antibiotics and an assurance that my white blood cells are plentiful enough to fight off the infection.
This is the reason for the concern. After a Wasabi dose your body stops making red and white blood cells for a little bit. So an infection is a big deal and they have to check that you have enough to go home.
Not to brag or anything but mine were ok so I got to go home vs stay overnight.
I now have several lab reports from different days and another one I get in two days. The data geek in me is super excited to pour over the data.
A Power Point presentation on my blood cell progression coming soon. Hahaha.
Today started off great. I’m getting my energy back and while still resting am back to talking Jeff’s ear off. I am for sure on the upswing
Jeff went to do errands today one of which was to either find a battery for the 3 digital thermometers we have that are all low battery. Or buy a new one.
After going to a store called Casa De Batterias
which has all kinds of batteries except the kind for thermometers. he came back with a new one.
I ran a fever at 4:00 and this is what the brand new one showed after using it once.
The difference between 37.8 and 38.0 can decide if we need to go to the ER.
So, Jeff is currently our shopping for a 4th digital therm.
Update-by the time he got home with thermometer 4 and 5, my fever was down but the doctor had called and wanted us to come in.
three hours later we are back home with another antibiotic. prescription and instructions to keep checking my temp.
Since a fever would require another trip to the ER, I rested all day and monitored my temp. Sven kept a close eye on me
It did hit 38F at one point but my doctor said if I keep checking it every 4 hours and it doesn’t go higher I don’t have to come in.
Ummm I’ve been checking it every 20 minutes in the day and waking up every 2 hours to check it at night.
Sven is also keeping me hydrated. PMI (the company I work for) gave me my very own personalized tumbler. The other side has my name and emoji but I couldn’t get Sven to sit still for the photo shoot.
I felt good this morning and was even able to work a little. Sven wanted to learn how to forecast mugs.
Although being a sloth he lost interest and then just watched me forecast.
Unfortunately my fever came back in the afternoon. It’s gone now and the doctor said it was ok to have one today. Fingers crossed it doesn’t come back tomorrow when it’s a bigger deal after being on antibiotics due 48 hours.
Today has been much better. I am still exhausted, but I was fever free for most of the day. When the fever came back Tylenol, antibiotics and this nice cold washcloth from Jeff helped.
Jeff and Sven worked on submitting all the bills for insurance today. It’s good that Sven is willing to help because they has practically been a full time job for Jeff.
When you get Wasabi your immune system becomes suppressed so any fever is a big deal. Before I even started, my oncologist told me to buy a thermometer and if my temperature went above 38C I had to call him.
Calling him led us to the emergency room at the hospital.
Five hours and some crossword puzzles later, my doctor told us that I did indeed have an infection and I needed antibiotics.
So now we’re back home. I feel like I have the flu but the infection should be under control and I’m on Tylenol and amoxicillon.
It wasn’t the best day but I didn’t have to stay at the hospital so I consider that a win.
