saturday night, day 20

being completely honest...I sat on the couch most of the day on Saturday, watching tv. The chemo was kicking my butt, I was tired. Around 4pm or so I noticed when I stood up that my back was stiff and sore. As the night went on it became more painful and got to the point that I couldn't find a comfortable position. 11pm I decided to go to bed and hoped that laying down would help. Wrong! nothing helped, medication, heating pad, knees bent, extra pillows, willing myself to relax and at 3:30a we were in the car on the way to the COH. 

By the time we arrived I could only stand and the pain could be described as cramping or spasms that would come and go and made it really hard to get a breath. This really felt like the pain that I had in my stomach but now it was in my back, Well, the first dose of medication lasted about 20 minutes and at least allowed me to sit in the bed. The second dose lasted about 1 hour and to lay a little more flat and then a third dose was needed in order to give me complete relief and allow me to get to sleep and I was going to be admitted for observation and so that my doctors could try to get to the cause and Monday was chemo day.

Monday was spent having testing and about 2pm my doctor came in to give me the chemo into my port and I was pre-medicated in a comfortable and quiet room and as she prepared for the procedure I was really hopeful and just as she finished, I had the same violent reaction as I did last week. I did get really sick again and once it passed I just wanted to climb in the bed and sleep. I still needed 3 different kind of blood transfusions, as I did in the hospital and one more round of IV chemo. If there is anything good to say, it would be that as fast as it comes on, it passes just as fast. I was able to enjoy a Baja Fresh burrito for dinner and settled in for another night as an inpatient.

So after, multiple doses of pain medication, a chest xray, 2 urine tests, multiple blood tests, an xray of my back and having my stitches removed from my ommaya port surgery. Diagnosis: unknown. Best guess: the pain was caused from a extreme acceleration of the bone marrow producing blood. I guess this is quite common and others have ended up at COH feeling similar pain. 

At 3:45p on Tuesday, I was on my way home.

Here are my latest numbers: (remember, next week I start back on the 4 day routine of chemo. So enjoy and celebrate with me. These numbers look very hopeful)

WBC: 1.5

RBC: 3.21

Hemoglobin: 9.6

Platelet: 238

Glucose: 100

Thanks for checking in. Keep praying and keep in touch...