My First Infection

Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.

Not every day can be good. You need a little rain to see the rainbow, after all! But it's important to remember that the bad days don't last long - and you can't appreciate the good days without the bad.

For the past few days, I've been in hospital with an infection. Nothing serious, in fact anybody who hadn't just had chemotherapy would fight it off naturally - but my white blood cell counts were so lowered that I couldn't fight it, and so, I needed antibiotics. Chemotherapy can be a pain in the ass. In this blog, I want to document my first experiences with things, to give others an idea of what they can possibly expect while undergoing treatment - so it only seems right to talk about my first infection.

A week after my first dose of chemotherapy, I was going to have my CNS prophylaxis - an injection of chemotherapy into my spinal fluid to prevent any cancer cells from spreading into my nervous system, as I understand it. I was released from the hospital on Thursday, four days after my first chemo, and my CNS prophylaxis was on Monday.

The CNS prophylaxis went smoothly. I was petrified for it, and went in there to discover it really wasn't that bad. Much like a lumbar puncture, you bring up your knees and lie on your side, and all I felt was a little pinch with the local anaesthetic - surprisingly, I didn't even feel the "sting" you commonly get with local anaesthetic! It was just like a pin prick in your back. And then, before I knew it, everything was underway. An amazing nurse held my hand through it and chatted away to me, and I happily chatted back - At one point I asked, "Is it happening right now?", that's how little I could feel. The only pain I had was a mild, very bearable ache that was sort of in my pelvis area as they worked - towards the end. I am not sure if that was the injection, of the collection of spinal fluid or what, but it was an extremely mild pain and if all my future CNS prophylaxis sessions have that little bit of pain? That will be okay with me. I was expecting it to be alot worse.

So, I got my CNS prophylaxis done with no complications. I was very pleased with how it went, and it put my mind at ease for future sessions. I did, however, go home and sleep - they told me to lie down, so sleep seemed like the best option. Everything was good.

It was Tuesday when I started feeling sick. I was pretty nauseous, which I assumed was normal - After all, my chemotherapy hadn't given me many side effects, so I figured the CNS chemotherapy wouldn't be so kind. I spent the day chilling out, but at around 4PM, I got very, very cold - so I got out of bed to go put warmer clothes on. I don't remember how it happened, but I wound up on the floor, doubled over and sick. It wasn't a very fun time. I tried to eat, because after that little incident I was hungry - but I couldn't manage much without feeling sick again.

Wednesday, I woke up feeling as sick as ever, and as expected, the nausea turned into sickness. We called the doctor to come out and give me an anti-sickness injection, which she did - but right after she gave me the injection, I fainted and was sick again. It kicked in over the course of a few hours and for the rest of the day, I felt much less nauseous - but still somewhat sick.

Through all of this, the worst part was the fatigue. I was so tired, and ended up napping only an hour after waking up from my last nap. It was really bad. But I figured, "Hey, it's just the chemotherapy".

Only on Thursday did my temperature spike. Not overly high, but a low grade fever is still a fever - so we called the hospital and they asked us to come up, as they were concerned about me being sick as well as having a temperature. I was so exhausted, I couldn't change out of my pajamas, and I sat in the kitchen crying because I didn't want to go to the hospital - I was overwhelmed with feeling sick and tired, and I didn't want the added stress.

But we had to go, and I realized that - so after driving to hospital, we went to the ward we were directed to, and they found me a bed. I was dehydrated, so my veins were all collapsing and nobody could get much blood from me or get a cannula in - It took alot of work and failed attempts. Eventually, we got a cannula in and got blood drawn and so on. I cried quite a bit, not from the pain but just exhaustion and the overwhelming situation, but all my doctors and nurses were amazing. They got me sorted out and comforted me and before I knew it, I was sleeping again.

I spent the day there, and was told that I was going to be kept in because I did have an infection. So, I was admitted, and given antibiotics. Prcatically as soon as they started, I began to feel better. I was also put on a fluid IV to keep me hydrated, because I am very bad with drinking adequate amounts - I hate the taste of water.

Not the happiest to be back in hospital, but here we are.

I've been on antibiotics since Thursday; it's now Tuesday. I feel miles better than I did, and I am also no longer on fluid IVs. They took twelve hours, so I asked if I could just work really hard at drinking more fluids instead, and they said if I drank enough fluids I could stay off the drips - so that's what I'm doing.

I know coming into hospital is an annoyance, and the worry of "Will I be admitted?" often makes you not want to come - but it's much, much better to get the treatment you need. It's a bit of a pain, but it's better than sitting at home, getting worse and worse and feeling all around miserable. When I came in, I was feeling so awful that my lips were quite literally grey - And within a day I was a much better colour. Five days on, and you could barely tell I had an infection. I still can't leave my hospital room - my neutrophils are very low, leaving me susceptible to infection. But my infection markers are coming down well, I have no more temperature spikes, and everything is recovering well. It'll just take time.