It has been a hard couple of weeks, so I will try to bring everyone up to date...
Wednesday, October 1: My oncologist suspected an infection in my implant/spacer, and told me to go to the Midland ER to start IV antibiotics. At the ER, they cultured my blood for infection and took a culture from the wound that still has not healed from my May 2008 surgery. They did blood work, which showed a slightly lowered hemoglobin (7.7 range), but my blood work was good otherwise.
Thur-Friday: We learned that my blood cultures came back negative (a good thing!), but that they had found pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria in my wound. My meds were changed to ones which would specifically attack this bacteria, and we were set up with home-care infusion so that Paul could give me the IV antibiotics in our home.
Saturday-Sunday: I felt increasingly worse over the weekend -- sleeping all the time, barely able to get up our stairs at home. Just no energy at all.
Monday, Oct. 6: We kept an appointment with my plastic surgeon at Troy, MI. He was ready to send me home after an exam, but I felt so bad that I said I wanted to go the hospital. I was admitted to Beaumont Troy, where he does most of his surgeries. It took all day, but by evening they ran blood work and found my problem -- hemoglobin (i.e. blood volume) was 1/3 of a healthy person and my platelets (for clotting blood) were about 13-14; a healthy range is 200+. That night they gave me blood and platelet transfusions. My hemoglobin was improved but my platelets were unchanged. We decided that I would transfer to Beaumont Royal Oak so my oncologist could treat me at "his" hospital.
Tuesday, Oct 7: I transferred to Beaumont Royal Oak. They did a slew of blood tests on me. All of which (over time) came back negative. Possibly the new chemotherapy sent my platelets dropping, but my oncologist said he has never seen a response like mine. I told Paul that new chemotherapy combined with an infection and antibiotics made a "perfect storm." We might never have a definitive answer as to why I had such a life threatening reaction?
Good news.... on Wednesday, Oct 8 I was given one unit of platelets "just to see" what would happen. My platelet levels inched upward, and each day showed a little bit of improvement. By Friday, October 10, they were able to aspirate (take some fluid) from around the implant/expander to culture it.
Since I had been on antibiotics for more than a week, we were warned ahead of time that the fluid might show no sign of infection; it would be "sterile" fluid. The doctors were right about that, so we had a judgement call to make -- leave the spacer/implant and hope that the infection would go away completely on its own, or take out the spacer/implant and drastically increase my chances of beating the infection. Needless to say, we took the former option.
I was in the hospital over the weekend, receiving the IV antibiotics, watching my blood and waiting for my blood numbers to improve. The surgery was performed on Tuesday, October 14, and I came home later that evening.
For now, I am to be on the antibiotics for two weeks, until September 28. I feel more tired than usual, but my body has lots of healing to do. I can rest or eat and then feel immediately better. It is a manageable "tiredness." My blood is checked each week, and soon I should find out when I can receive my next chemotherapy. I missed my regularly scheduled dose this past Monday, and still have three doses left.
Paul's parents stayed with our boys all last week. Paul's sister was at the hospital almost constantly, and she was a great source of help and comfort to us both. But I think especially to Paul -- I didn't learn how worried he was until our drive home Tuesday evening....
My parents are here now, and they will stay for as long as we need them.
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