A bad weekend

We’ve had a traumatic weekend.

It all began when I started showing symptoms of a cold. I was blowing & coughing up the usual yellowy green phlegm. I checked my temperature – 35.7, below the temperature I’m supposed to have. I consulted the book I’ve been given in which you are told when to phone the oncology 24 hour emergency helpline. It sounded as though I should ring, certainly within the next 24 hours. I left it, determined to get the chicken roasted & a square meal inside me as I suspected I would be told to go to A&E & that would be a long wait on a Saturday evening. 

After dinner, around 6pm & before I got changed for bed, I checked my temperature again. It was now more normal. Nonetheless I made the phone call. I was told to go to the Queen Vic hospital here in Morecambe. I duly got there. I saw the doctor & was prescribed some antibiotics. She checked my lungs & glands & could find nothing worse than a cold with flu-like symptoms. Nonetheless it is important to catch it before it starts to impact on the lungs as it could well do with my lowered resistance due to the chemotherapy, hence the antibiotics. She told us where the nearest chemist was as by this time it was 10pm. She also said I should ring the helpline again in the morning & speak to an oncology nurse as she was concerned about the “blanching macula/papula red rash” which she wasn’t sure how to assess as I’m undergoing chemo at the moment.

So come Sunday I rang the helpline again. I’d had a ropey night. I hadn’t been able to get warm despite having an extra blanket on & hearing the central heating going on & off throughout the night. I’d reluctantly got up – that’s not me - & checked my temperature – 77.4, too high. The antibiotics didn’t seem to be kicking in. When I rang the helpline, I was told to check my temperature again. By then the thermometer registered 78, even worse. I must go to A&E at Lancaster immediately. We set off arriving about 11.30am. Eventually we left about 4pm. By then I’d had to supply a water sample, had blood tests, chest X-ray, nose swabs taken to check for flu, blood pressure, temperature & pulse done.  They could find nothing amiss apart from a cold. (That’s what I’d suspected in the first place & in normal circumstances wouldn’t have worried about it, but chemotherapy treatment is not normal circumstances.) They finally agreed I could go home but I must ring Oncology before going in for yesterday’s treatment.

So yesterday I rang. I was told at first I’d been marked down for non-treatment. There was something wrong with one my Friday blood results. I explained my weekend & that the antibiotics did seem to be kicking in now as my temperature was normal once more. They got an oncology nurse to ring. The oncology nurse said she would have a talk with the specialist. Eventually, about 11am, I was told he was content for me to have the treatment providing my temperature was still within normal parameters. Fortunately my appointment was in the afternoon. So we set off for Lancaster. There after a long wait, my temperature was checked & treatment given.

One good thing, some of taste buds seem to be returning. I’ve been using the mouthwash I was prescribed more often, as well as eating a lot of fresh fruit – grapes, pineapple & melon - & drinking more fluids. I finally think all that acid is cutting through some of the gunk in my mouth. My next shopping list is having plenty of fruit on it to hopefully continue this situation. Of course it may just have been a sign of this cold being on its way. Losing my taste buds has been more traumatic than losing my hair. Clearly food, eating & preparation, is a more important part of my identity than my hair.