Days 6-9 - The Good, The Bad and The Patient!

Sorry for the lack of posts, but for a few days it seemed there wasn’t really anything new to report. Now, though, there’s a lot of catching up to do, so get ready.

Day 6 started out as another uneventful day. Patrick was feeling pretty nauseated, and when the doctor looked at his chart, saw he was getting only a third of the amount of anti-nausea medication for someone his weight and height, so they upped his dosage. He got quite a few more visitors as well, so the day passed pretty quickly. When the nurse came in at 8:00 to take his vitals though, his temperature was high. The nurse explained that the fever could be a result of the chemotherapy and nothing more, or possibly an infection. With everything the chemo kills off, his immune system is basically non-existent, and infections are common in patients going through chemo. They took some blood and sent it off for testing and told us it would be at least 48 hours until results were back. They started him on IV antibiotics to play it safe, and also an antifungal IV. During his vital examination, Patrick told the nurse his mouth was feeling sensitive. They took a look and found he was beginning to develop thrush. The chemo also kills off the bacteria that keeps yeast in check, and without that bacteria, antifungal meds are needed to avoid overgrowth. Patrick had been taking an oral antifungal which spreads through the body on fat cells. Since Patrick hadn’t been feeling good and wasn’t eating much, the meds didn’t have the fat cells to ride on. As a result, it was ineffective, so by changing to the IV version, the medicine should actually do its job and keep the thrush at bay.

Day 7 should have been a much better day than it was. The final bag of chemo went up, but instead of celebrating, Patrick was doing nothing but sleeping. His temperature spiked to over 103°, so he was pretty miserable. There wasn’t anything more that could be done though. Time needed to pass so the antibiotics could kick in and do its job.

Day 8 finally came, and Patrick started feeling better. His temperature started coming down to around 100. He was able to eat a little bit and felt up for a short visit from family. Results came back from the blood work taken on Thursday evening when the fever first spiked. It showed that there was an infection, and it was actually in his pick line…the internal IV that runs from his arm to his heart to get the chemo spread throughout his body as quickly as possible. They took two blood samples that night, one from his pick line and one from this other arm. The sample from his pick line had a lot of infection in it, while the opposite sample was much cleaner, so it gave the doctor a quick answer, and verified they were right in starting the antibiotics right away. They also removed his pick line and finished up the chemo in a regular IV in the opposite arm. That’s right…finished up the chemo! Wooo hooo! Now it’s just a waiting game as his body continues to process the chemo and kills off all the cancer.

Today Patrick is feeling much better. He’s ready for more visitors and has been able to get out of bed and spend some time outside. It was a bad couple of days, but Patrick made it through with a great disposition and everybody is looking forward to getting daily updates on his blood levels. The quicker his bone marrow is killed off completely, the quicker the healthy cells can start growing back and Patrick can get home. THAT will be a great day!!!