The Toughest Week Yet

High fever. Throwing up. Dehydration. Low white counts.

Those things brought me to the emergency room last Wednesday afternoon. When I arrived at the ER my fever was near 104 degrees. They got me in to a room right away and started running various blood tests and xrays. The only thing they were able to find was a little bacteria in my urine. That's it! But since my counts were so low...like 0.1...my body couldn't control or fight it. Thus I was admitted to 5N that night. I guess if you need to be admitted to the hospital that is where you want to be. Wonderful, caring, funny nurses.

I was throwing up most of Wednesday night and since I hadn't been able to keep any food down all day, there wasn't much to throw up. I was given some medicine for nausea and by 3am my throwing up had ceased. I was then able to get a little sleep.

I woke up Thursday morning to get my blood taken for testing. The results showed very low white counts, lower than ever before, 0.05. And low hemoglobin and platelets, which meant I needed a transfusion. So, my Thursday was spent receiving platelets and blood. Thank you to all of you who are donors. Your blood may have helped me out this week!

Now my throwing up had ceased, but I started having diarrhea. I don't know which is worse. Well, they wanted to make sure that there was no infection there, so they took a sample and had it tested. Thankfully that checked out fine. My fever was gone and I was feeling pretty good. Thursday night was uneventful other than getting up to go to the bathroom almost hourly, or at least that is what it seemed like.

Friday my counts were still all really low. But my white cells had come up a bit, to 0.4. I had still been getting my favorite shots to help boost those this whole time. Since my platelets were low, I have nice bruises on my arms to show exactly where my shots were given! My doctor came in and said that my hemoglobin was still pretty low, not low enough to automatically transfuse, but if I felt like I needed it, he would give me more blood. I took it. So my fun Friday night date was getting more blood.

Saturday morning I woke feeling good. I was positive that my counts would be up and that the doctors would let me go home. Unfortunately they had other ideas for me. They wanted me to hang out just a few days longer to make sure the counts all kept heading up and that there was no infections in my intestines. I was given medicine to help slow the diahrrea down. It worked! They also started me on an antibiotic to kill any infection I might have.

Since I was feeling so good Saturday I started to get really bored and felt like I was climbing the walls. I wanted out! But I wasn't allowed to leave so I spent the day watching college football games with my dad. Well, he watched the football games while I napped, played games on my cell phone, and sent text messages. :)

My blood test on Sunday morning was a promising one. My white counts were way up as well as my hemoglobin. My platelets were still really low, but not low enough to transfuse. When the doctor came in I was excited to hear that he was letting me go home! I have to watch carefully for signs that my platelets have dropped even lower and I am on two oral antibiotics, but I am out! I am free!

I was able to enjoy the sunny Sunday afternoon. I didn't do much because I was tired and sore from laying around in the hospital for four days, but it felt so good to be home. I am glad that today is Labor day because I need one more day to rest up for my first day of school tomorrow. I am so excited! I am going back to teaching tomorrow! Don't worry! I am not going to over do it and if I get too tired I will ask for somebody to take over. But I need to go. I need to do it for me. I need to do it just so I have some connection to the normal outside world.

Being a cancer patient is often a very lonely thing. There are weeks where it is difficult to have a good connection with the "outside" world because my counts are so low or I am feeling so crappy. That's just the way it is. But I am never alone even during those lonely times. God is with me. And I am so thankful for that!

I have two rounds left and I am praying that they aren't nearly as bad as this last one was. For these last two rounds, two of my six chemo medicines are taken away, which means I will only receive four. And, I think but I am not sure, that the remaining four are modified a little bit dosagewise. Regardless, I HAVE TWO ROUNDS LEFT!!! That is so exciting for me! Today is September and I will be done with chemo in October. That is next month! You don't know how happy that makes me. I am crying tears of joy right now as I type. I am so ready to be done!

Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers. Please keep them coming!

"I can do all things through Him who gives me strength." Phillippians 4:13