TRAINING TO BE FIT AT 99: That strange side road.....WiFi

On Friday, December 6th I was feeling very very bad...to put it bluntly....like I'd fallen down a hill and someone was there to kick me. My arm and underarm were hurting and I felt feverish and to be honest ...like I had a really bad case of the flu.

But I don't want to go lay back down and miss my 1:00 call to get my in-hospital HER2 results. So I doctor myself with Tylenol, get to feeling better.....then get to feeling worse.....As I am getting the results of the test (see previous post) I mention to the oncology assistant I am talking to, what my symptoms are. She advises I either call my surgeon or my PCM.

Naturally I can't get anyone in the surgeon's office (It's Friday afternoon), but I am able to get a 3:45 appointment with my Primary Care Manager right here at the clinic 10 mins. from my house. I call John and tell him I need to go see the doctor and being the sweet caring man that he is, he comes home and takes me....good thing....because....

When the doctor looked at the place under my arm he says it appears that there might be an abscess and that it probably needs to be lanced. But since I am just a short time out of surgery, he does not feel comfortable doing it in his office and advises I go to the

Well if you've ever been to an Emergency room, you know that is always just a blast!!!!! But when we got there the lobby was empty.....and I do mean empty as in we are the only ones in there. We check in and can you guess what we do........(as I'm feeling like all the energy and fight has been drained out of me and I'm burning up with fever 102.5)? Yes you guessed it....we sit and wait...well OK so just because the lobby isn't full, doesn't mean behind the doors there aren't a lot of people....but when I finally got called in....there did not appear to be a lot of people!!

Regardless.....

They did blood work, urine test and took a chest X-ray to rule out anything else....other than the fact that the axillary area may have a bit of an abscess. They put me on a fluid IV. After consulting someone in my surgeon's area (I guess ER doctors have a special line to an area where I could get no one to answer earlier)...to let them know what he planned to do (and they concurred), the ER doctor did a small incision at the site and placed a small ribbon in the incision sight to keep it open with instructions to pull it out in two days. He bandaged it and advised that I apply hot packs at least 4 times a day, that I could shower and to change the bandages as needed. Before I left he gave me a dose (2) of an antibiotic and called in a prescription. I will be on antibiotics for 10 days.

Twice during the night,(Friday), I felt like a fever broke as I was drenched and had to change sleep clothes. I am feeling considerably better.

So that's the side road that was not expected, but compared to everything else....I guess I should say it was a walk in the park..........except for when the nurse put the IV in.....Lord she must have skipped the day they did training in putting an IV in. I've never had an IV hurt like that...I cried..........wait, do I see a pattern here....I seem to be crying a lot lately!

Sunday, December 8th...

The axillary site looks a lot better, the ribbon fell out last night while I was changing bandages....and I appear to be on the mend.....still 9 more days of antibiotics.

I am proceeding with radiation and have a simulation/marking appointment tomorrow, Monday December 9th at 9:30.

The doctor at the ER said that he thought it unlikely that they would want to do radiation on me right now with this opened incision....although since the ribbon is out, it may well close up prior to them actually starting radiation on Wednesday. I will certainly talk to the radiation people about that. If I don't have to delay, I will start on Wednesday, December 11th and the treatments will last until around January 13th... and if I am lucky (keeping my fingers and toes crossed) and I do not have to do chemo after the radiation, then my mind is going to change from all this not so happy bump in my road to the high seas......

I can close my eyes and hear Christopher Cross now......Copy and paste this web site into your search line and you'll be able to hear him too......

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lyrics+to+sailing&FORM=VIRE3#view=detail&mid=A736CD4B0D6FA0F38A1DA736CD4B0D6FA0F38A1D

Tomorrow I'll give you all the exciting details of going through the cat scan and getting marked for radiation in my next post. I'm sure a fun time will be had by all !