Last week was a pretty typical post-chemo week. My white blood cells took a plunge (0.2, normal range is around 3.5-11.0) so I stayed at home except for my daily blood draws at the infusion clinic. On Wednesday I got a platelet transfusion and took a delicious Benadryl induced 5-hour nap afterwards. Thursday morning started out as any other day. I went to the hospital at 8:30am to get my blood drawn. However, after the nurse drew my blood she flushed my catheter with some saline water (as she was suppose to do) and I immediately started coughing uncontrollably. It felt like something was stuck in my throat and I could not cough it up or get rid of the tickle. My chest hurt to breathe, my heart started racing, my forehead was icy cold, and my face got very pale. The nurses called my doctor and he immediately came to see me. He guessed that I had “seeded” which means basically some bacteria entered my tube when the saline was flushed in. My body went into shock. He said that I needed to check into the emergency room to run a bunch of blood tests, urine test, and x-rays so they could make sure that I did not have an infection. Plus he said I might have to stay in the hospital for a few days to get IV antibiotics. WHAT??!? I did not want to go back into the hospital after I had just been released! After about 20 minutes in the infusion clinic I assured my doctor that I was feeling much better. Even though my doctor is a minimalist, he said that we still needed to go to the ER to make sure that I didn’t have an infection especially because my wbcs were so low. Anyways, to make a long story short, after 5 hours in the ER they decided I was fine to go home. I felt perfectly fine too. We still don’t know what happened, but I’m happy that whatever it was went away. Whew…..

This weekend I just hung out at home and had many friends visit me. I had a fantastic time.

I gotta jet. I have a platelet transfusion and a blood transfusion in 10 minutes. My platelets are 10 (normal range is 140K and above) and my hemoglobin is 7.5 (normal is above 11.5). No wonder I feel so lightheaded. I love how easy it is to set up transfusions these days. I <3 my infusion clinic nurses!!!