Troubleshooting

Every night I get a fever ranging from 99.1 to 100.6. On Wednesday, I had a pulmonary function test and saw Dr. Howard. Because I was still having fevers and night sweats, she wanted my mediport out. She rather be on the safe side and remove it, even tho the cultures had come back negative. There were also some spots on my CT indicating a small pneumonia. She told me that pneumonia can show up on an x-ray even after a person it better. I asked her if it could be my heart causing the shortness of breath and she told me that we can't answer that without checking it out. So the plan was to get rid of my mediport, like yesterday and get another MUGA scan to make sure my heart function is o.k. She also wanted me to see my pulmonologist about the decreased lung function and CT.

Her nurse set up the Mediport removal for Thursday at 2:00. The only problem was that I was on blood thinners and my INR was 2.7. In order to have this procedure done, it needed to be 1.5. She gave me 10mg of Vitamin K which helps reverse it, and told me not to take my blood thinners and that I may have to have fresh frozen plasma transfused if the vitamin K didn't do the trick.

So Thursday Bryan and I arrived at the hospital around 7:50am. We checked in at the front for my MUGA scan and went straight to the clinic. They inserted and IV into my left arm and drew blood for another INR test. After that we went down to Nuclear Medicine for the MUGA. The tech drew some blood and I waited while he put a tracer in the blood he drew. While I waited, I ran into the radiology nurse, who is an absolute angel. She was with me when I had my mediport put in, and helped me thru that rough patch in the days following. She told me my INR was 1.9 but that the doctor said it was acceptable and we were a go for the procedure. About a 1/2 hour later, the nuclear med tech came and got me, re-injected that blood into my arm, and I laid down on the table for the "pictures".

Afterwards I went back to the clinic to see if they needed me for anything else and even tho the interventional radiologist said 1.9 was acceptable, Dr. Howard wanted me at 1.5 so they transfused two units of fresh frozen plasma...it was cold. Afterwards they drew more blood and I waited. I was super tired, so I dozed off and around 11:30 the nurse came and told me that my INR was now 1.5. Bryan and I went and sat outside for a 1/2 hour until it was time to check in to day surgery.

We checked in at day surgery and got into my room. I had to strip down to my socks and put on an ugly gown. I've grown to truly hate these gowns. Why must they be so frickin' ugly??? Anyway, my nurse was in and out of my room asking me 20 questions...the same 20 questions that I feel like I answer every day. I'd like to get a t-shirt made for my trips to the hospital. Bryan and I watched TV until finally the radiology nurse came and got me.

Once we were down in the freezing cold angio room, the interventional radiologist came to talk to me about the procedure. They weren't putting me out - only giving me something to relax me. I put on my brave face and we got in there. They hooked me up, putting on EKG patches, a blood pressure cuff, oxygen tubes in my nose, the finger thing that monitors your pulse. They put arm rests on the narrow table for my arms. Then they covered my face with paper sheets and gave me the meds to relax me. I didn't feel much different, but it must've done something since I really didn't seem to care much about what was going on. The doc stuck me several times around my port with something to numb me up. He did a good job. I didn't feel a thing except some tugging as he stitched me back up.

Once it was over, I was wheeled back to my room and had to be there for an hour before being discharged. My instructions were to keep the dressing on for a couple of days, watch for fever (nice since I already get them), and watch for infection.

We finally left the hospital at 4:30pm.

That night I realized that I had no idea what the next step was. I called the doctor's office this morning and talked with a nurse. She told me that they already had my chart pulled for the doctor with a note on it saying "what's next?".

Later, Dr. Howard called me back and talked to me about my fevers. She told me I could stay off the blood thinners now, and call her on Monday to let her know how my fevers were over the weekend. I see my pulmonologist on Thursday and she already called him to talk to him about what's going on. I still don't know why I have to see him, when they just talked on the phone.

So I'm hoping to get better really soon. My shortness of breath is a tiny bit better every day, but I still get a fever every night. I want whatever this is to be gone so I can continue with my chemo and get this shit over with! I want to go back to work and make some money since we're pretty much out of it. I want to be social. I keep thinking about how I'm going to celebrate once all of this is over. My birthday is in December and I want to have a big party to celebrate making it thru the year. But for now, I'm still afraid to go to sleep some nights and I'm afraid of how my life will be when this is finally over. Will I be afraid with every little ache, pain, or ill feeling? Will I become completely paranoid? Will I always have to live in fear?