(I completely forget to blog this entry, perhaps because I was so out of it when it happened. But it's an important part of the story, so it must be told.)
By Monday my burns had much improved. In fact, Dr. Zablow said that the fact that I'd healed so much already was a good indication that I'll recover pretty quickly from the radiation. This was good news. Then my radiation treatment went well, at least as well as it could. Then, since Dr. Conde, the chemo oncologist, had said I was done with chemo, it was time to go home. The rest of the day went by in a blur: sleep, spit, ingest, spit, apply lotion, spit, ingest, spit, etc. That night I do remember waking up hourly to spit. Ominously, I didn't feel that well, or rather worse than usual.
Tuesday. At this point I had just 3 sessions left, I'd be done Thursday. That was already 4 days later than originally planned, because of the day I missed when I was dehydrated and the 3 days lost because of the burns. But now the end was right in front of me. At least I thought it was.
7:30AM. I was having trouble waking up. This was suspicious. Most days I've been getting up by 5:30 or so: feeding myself, gargling, spitting, etc. But I couldn't get out of bed. With an interior push I forced myself up and started my routine. My burns were continuing to heal well. Everything seemed more or less normal, except Betsy noticed I was stumbling a bit and seemed a little out of it. She decided I must be dehydrated, based on my symptoms the last time. We agreed we should get to the hospital and I'd get fluids, but what about the radiation treatment? We headed out early to ask Dr. Z what to do.
He asked me what day it was. I looked at my watch and answered "Tuesday." He said, "nice try but I'm trying to evaluate you." Then he asked me to spell 'world,' which I did. "Now, spell it backwards." I couldn't do it. "Yep, he's dehydrated." He agreed that I should get fluids, but he said I could get my radiation treatment first. That's the last thing I remember that morning.
What I've been told: Colleen delivered me to the radiation treatment in a wheel chair. I was doing fine until about half way through the treatment. That's when I raised my hands to my face, a big no-no, and the machine was immediately stopped and I was taken out.
The next thing I remember I was in bed with an IV pumping fluids into me. I drifted in and out as both of my doctors came to check on me. Zablow was sure I was suffering from dehydration. Conde came by and said based on my blood levels, which appeared to be normal, he wasn't so sure that's what it was. If I had trouble when I got home he said I'd have to be checked into the hospital for testing. This really freaked Betsy out (it would have scared me too, but I don't remember it). After a couple of hours of infusion I felt much better. My backwards spelling ability had returned. I knew where I was and what was going on. I was able to walk out. We went home and I continued to drink as much as I could - both by mouth and tube.
By Wednesday morning I was back to myself. At the hospital I found out that I was getting the second half of Tuesday's treatment. This meant I wouldn't be done on Thursday after all. The new out day: Friday.
I can live with that.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment