One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

It's been a busy week. We were planning on heading out camping on Tuesday with our neighbors for three nights but I woke up Tuesday morning at 1:15 with a wicked headache, chills and a fever ranging from 38.5-41.0 degrees. I stayed home for a few hours but eventually hauled myself into the ER. The nurse who saw me first drew a whole bunch of blood before the doctor even saw me and sent it off. She gave me some tylenol and ibuprofen which lowered my fever and almost completely got rid of my headache so that by the time I saw the doctor I had virtually no symptoms and felt like a tool. But he was thorough and would not let me leave without having a try at finding out what had caused my fever and headache. My white blood count came back normal so a bacterial infection was unlikely (we both thought that my drain and abscess may have become infected again and caused my symptoms). So in a last ditch effort, he sent me off for a CT scan to see if the abscess looked bigger or had changed shape since my last scan. Since I was scheduled to have a scan next week anyways this was actually going to save me time so I was totally in favour.

An hour or so after my scan, he came back into my room with a long face. He said that the good news was that the abscess seemed to be smaller than my previous scan and that it was unlikely that it was the cause of my fever and headache. He also had two rather distressing pieces of information to share that he had gleaned from the radiologist that looked over my CT scan. The first thing they were worried about was a possible blood clot in my leg. He said I would need to go for an ultrasound immediately to confirm and then go on some high powered blood thinners and clot busters. The second, infinitely more distressing piece of news, was that the radiologist saw two spots in my right lung that were "suspicious for metastatic disease". Curiously enough this was similar to the wording I got on my first CT scan almost a year ago when they thought they saw some spots in my liver that were potentially cancerous. Needless to say I was pissed, scared and frustrated by that news.

So after that bombshell I got shipped down to the ultrasound department for a scan of my leg. The tech was good and fast and said that she couldn't see any signs of a clot in my leg. She also said that they frequently get false readings for clots on the CT scan. It has something to do with the contrast dye they inject into your blood while they are doing the scan. For this reason, ultrasound is a much better tool for seeing clots than a CT.

Once I got back to the ER the doctor came back to talk and said that since I was feeling better and since I didn't have a blood clot I could go home. He said I should follow up with my oncologist ASAP to find out what the plan was for dealing with the probable lung mets. So home I went.

With our camping trip delayed because of my impromptu trip to the ER, Penny and the kids were waiting for me at home. So we packed up the rest of our supplies and planned to get a good nights sleep Tuesday night and then head out to McLean creek first thing in the morning. BUT that afternoon I got a call from my colorectal surgeons office saying that I was booked in to have glue inserted into my drain Thursday morning. It was seeming like our camping trip was not going to happen, but we talked and agreed that we would all go out for the day Wednesday and Penny and the kids would stay overnight while I would drive home and spend the night so I could be at the hospital first thing Thursday morning. So we got a good sleep and first thing Wednesday we went out, set up the trailer and spent the day. After the kids were in bed, the marshmallows were slain, and the fire was dieing down I drove back home. Before bed I checked the messages (good thing I did) and there was a message there from the ER doctor on call saying that my blood culture results were back and there was something worrisome and could I please call or come in ASAP. Being somewhat accustomed to receiving dire medical news of late, I gave the ER a call while I brushed my teeth. The doctor said that one of my blood cultures had grown strep bacteria and I needed to come in to repeat the test and/or be treated. I said I had to come in first thing in the morning anyways and could I make a day of it and see him after my morning appointment? He said that would be fine. I also needed to get my chemo port flushed so it truly would be another fun filled day of procedures and tests at the Foothills.

Thursday morning I went in (thanks for the ride Sandi) to start my day of fun. The glue-in-the-drain thing went well and the doctors were cautiously optimistic they may have solved the problem. During this procedure they just filled the fistula (sp?) - the passage between my rectum and the abscess - with glue. If it has made a water tight seal then next week they will fill the entire abscess with glue and pull out the drain. I am scheduled to have that done Thursday next week.

After the glue thing was finished I went to the chemo day care unit to have my port flushed. It worked fine (at least something did) and then I was off to the the ER. Once I got there I got right in and got a bed and they proceeded to draw more blood and do more tests. The funny thing is it takes about 48 hours to do a blood culture so after all the tests they didn't know any more than when I went in. They had to make a decision. Do they treat me for strep based on the first test alone or do they wait 2 days to get the results back from these blood tests to find out if I actually have it? That required a call to the infectious disease people who didn't call back for 3 hours. In the end they decided to put me on antibiotics as a precautionary measure. I will follow up with my family Dr next week to see if the most recent tests came up positive as well. Either way it doesn't really matter. I'm on the antibiotics anyway.

I finally managed to leave the hospital at about 4. I stopped at home, DIDN'T check the messages and headed out to meet up with everyone at the campground. We had a great time and the weather was awesome. It got a little cool at night (maybe down to 8 degrees?) but that was fine, we had a nice furnace to keep us warm. Nancy and Art also cooked up a HUGE breakfast this morning and coupled with a little Bailey's and coffee there no chance of being cold.

So you see it has been a busy week for us. Next week will be lots of fun too. We have friends coming to stay with us all the way from Nairobi, Kenya! We can't wait to see them and hear all about their adventures in Africa.

That's all for now.