Life After Cancer: Sick Days

After spending over 800 days in a hospital over a 5 year time period I will do anything in my power to avoid going to the ER or to see a doctor unless I feel that it is absolutely necessary, otherwise I like to stay away from them.  However, this past week I found myself spending way too much time in an ER room. 

One Saturday morning I woke up with a dull yet painful feeling in my chest when I breathed.  Not thinking too much about it I decided to carry on my day as usual even though I would have loved to crawl back under my nice warm covers and return to my peaceful slumber.  But, I made plans to head to the public library with my friend, Sable, which I was really looking forward to exploring some new adventures.  Yet as the day progressed, that dull pain I felt upon each breath increasingly grew.  By the time Sable and I decided that we needed to leave the library before bringing half of its contents home with us that pain was almost impossible to put out of my head.  After discussing the concern with her and my husband I decided that I would head to the walk-in clinic that was just across the street from our apartment.  From there the doctor decided that I should go to the ER since they were not sure what was going on but my blood pressure was sky high and my pulse was rapid.

After taking a few minutes to talk them down from calling an ambulance to take me to the ER and instead allow me to call my husband and have him drive me, I arrived at the ER where they hooked me up to an EKG and heart monitor and started running tests.  One of their main concerns given my medical history was a Pulmonary Embolism (PE), a blood clot that developed and traveled to my lungs.  In order to rule that out they drew blood and ran a d-dimer level, which shows clotting levels and can tell if the blood is clotting appropriately, and sent me for a CT scan with contrast, which they shot through my IV.  Seemed simple enough until the CT contrast blew out my vein with my IV and a majority of the contrast and saline gathered in a very small area on my arm and caused a large amount of pain and swelling.  Then they had to inject an antidote to help break down the contrast since it is usually excreted through the kidneys and the body does not know how to break down the contrast if it is not in the blood system.

After all of that, the only thing they could tell me was that I may be at the very beginning of a virus and if this was the case I just needed to take it easy, rest, and drink plenty of liquids and to come back if I developed a fever, the pain increased, or I was feeling short of breath.  After 4 hours in the ER I was finally released, not really knowing anything more than what I did when the day began, but in a bit more pain because of the CT contrast fiasco.  Little did I know that the fun part had yet commenced.

In addition to having an arm that was twice it’s normal size due to the IV CT contrast, I also broke out in a full body rash.  It seems that the more I am exposed to something, such as CT contrast or antibiotics, my body decides that it no longer wants to be a fan of that particular substance and rejects it by developing an allergy.  Apparently even my immune system is tired of being sick.  Every time I get sick I end up breaking out in a full body rash because of whatever medication they need to give me.  So far I have developed an allergy to every antibiotic that I have had to take more than once.  What is not to love about that?  Each day I felt a little more miserable until Tuesday night when the pain got so bad that I was unable to breath and my fever was not lowering after Tylenol.

Another trip to the ER!  Their concern was the same as Saturday, they were worried about blood clots so they wanted to run the same tests but did not want to do a CT since I had just had a CT recently and reacted badly to the contrast.  Thus, they decided to draw blood and get an X-Ray to see if there was any indication to send me for a CT.  After receiving the results form my blood tests they were more inclined to send me to CT because my clotting levels were elevated, indicating there could be a chance of a PE.  However, my blood tests also showed an increased creatine levels/kidneys functions, which signals impaired kidney functions and the contrast for the CT could cause further issues in addition to adding to my allergic reaction from the last time.  They decided that it would be better to perform the CT but would give me steroids and Benadryl to help fend off the reaction to the contrast.  In addition to loading me full of Benadryl, steroids, and fluids, they had to do something to help with the unbearable pain that had elevated my blood pressure and pulse once again, and relieved the pain by giving me an anti-inflammatory pain reliever called Toradol, which allowed me to finally breathe without wanting to cry.  This was a major improvement since Saturday.

The ending result was that they believed the membrane around my lungs was infected causing the pain when I inhaled.  This time they sent me home with a prescription for antibiotics and steroids that I was able to have filled at a machine in the ER lobby!  How cool is that!  My least favorite things is having to go to a pharmacy while feeling like a bag of crap.  This neat machine dispenses the prescriptions right there in the ER, eliminating the need to wake up the next day and drive to the pharmacy so I can be on my merry way of feeling like myself again.  Instead I could start on my path to wellness right then and there

Are these neat machines common?  This was my first experience with one and I must say that I am a HUGE fan!

All of this fun stuff started my path to finding a new doctor in my area.  The adventure of establishing a new primary physician and finding a new cardiologist who actually shows that he/she gives a damn about my health has begun.