How Can You Ruin Oatmeal?

Almost two weeks ago after my 7th chemo, I started running a high fever. This was the second time it had happened with this new 12-week regime of weekly taxol and carbonplatin. (I was on my third treatment or the 8 th treatment of the total scheduled 16). The first time it happened, I was on treatment two. And oh no! We were to leave for our Alaska cruise two days later. I started having chills after the infusion, and we took my temperature, which was 103. We called the oncologist, and she said I needed antibiotics, and, fortunately, I had some cipro on hand that I had gotten for the trip. I took the cipro and was fine the next day. We had a fantastic time on the cruise—it was great to get away, see the wonders of nature like glaciers, and to be off chemo for a week.

But I had to return to reality seven days later and chemo (round 8 from total of 16 treatments) came up the Thursday we got back. I felt fine immediately after treatment but lay down to take a nap and woke up unable to get out of bed because I was shaking so much with chills. But I forced myself and found my husband. We took my temperature which by now was over 104 with Tylenol. We called the oncologist and she said to go to the ER. “OH NO,” I thought. “The dreaded ER.” I hadn’t been in a hospital since my youngest son was born nearly 30 years ago. I had only been at the ER for about thirty minutes and they took me back to a room. I was so weak I could barely walk. The physician came back and asked questions about my fever. He quickly deduced it was an infected port since the fever occurred after each infusion. This was a good guess because the area around the port was not red or inflamed and looked deceptively benign. They did blood cultures from the port, a chest x-ray, urinalysis, ekg, and many more tests that I can’t even list here. I was hooked up to liquid a heavy duty antibiotic—vancomycin. My fever kept running high and my blood pressure was low. I sent Dan home at about midnight because they said they would keep me at least overnight and they didn’t have a room ready for me. And in fact, I didn’t get into a room on the oncology floor until 4:30 AM. I had brought a mystery to read so when I was lucid enough I read.

I could go into more detail here, but suffice to say they kept me for 3 more days because my fever was not abating and my blood pressure and breathing were way off. My darling daughter and husband were great to bring me extra pjs and blankets and normal food. And although the surgeon and oncologist debated the cause of the fever, the oncologist concluded it was an infected port and they removed it on Saturday while I lay in my hospital bed. By Sunday, my fever had dropped and I went home Sunday night. But here are some pointers about this experience: -- If you run a fever after chemo have it checked out. This is not normal. They say a temp of over 100.5 needs attention. Even if your port area is not red, it can be infected with seed bacteria. 

Some nurses are better than others in the hospital. I had several very competent, kind nurses but one in particular was awful. I don’t know if she was stressed out or what, but she was clumsy in the way she talked to an already freaked-out me. In the middle of the night on Friday night/Saturday morning she said “If you don’t start breathing, you will go the ICU and then you will be hooked up to all kinds of machines.” The same nurse asked me if I were a code or non-code. Wait? What???? I might die? Also same nurse would not bring me an extra blanket when I was chilled with fever. I had to lie under a thin blanket shaking until my fever went down with Tylenol. My daughter later brought me a comfy blanket at home that didn’t smell like pee (I didn’t know if that smell was coming from me since I had to get up to pee every 15 minutes, hooked to a monitor pole. Ugh. And the strong antibiotics made my pee smell like sulfur. A humiliating experience.) Maybe get someone to stay with you if possible during the night. 

The food tasted awful to me. I don’t know if it was the hospital food for just that I was so sick. I love oatmeal and the dietician had reassured me it was really good there. When the oatmeal arrived, it tasted as if they had left out the salt or something. In fact, almost all the food was bland. The desserts were cool whip mixed with something. Ugh. No nutrition that I could see. I’m not a picky eater either so I suggest you get people to bring you food you like. My peeps brought me Starbucks in the morning because the coffee was always luke-warm.

If your port gets infected and they have to remove it (fairly painless by the way), your doctors and you will then need to decide if they should put in another or just give you chemo IV. I had 8 more treatments so they are still trying to decide. I took the chemo through IV on Wednesday and I was fine.