Reality Sets In

Despite having a shaved head and wearing a wig, feeling icky and tired, I sometimes don't feel like a cancer patient. That all changed last night.

We spent the day at my sister-in-law's house for a Labor Day BBQ. It was a nice time with lots of friends and family and way too much food as always. We arrived around 2:30 and left at about 7:00. Luckily, we left the boys to spend the night at my mother-and-father-in-law's house because they had a teacher inservice day Tuesday and no school. My intention was to work a half day on Tuesday and then go to my first oncologist appt. at 12:30. My in-laws would drop off the boys after I came home.

Before we even left, I was feeling chilled and was sitting on the couch with a blanket over me, but I thought it was because after two near 100 days, the upper 60 temps were just a little tough to take. In the car, I started feeling more chilled like I had a fever. Getting out of the car, I started shivering and couldn't stop. I went straight upstairs and put on long pajamas and a robe and curled up on the couch with a blanket to type out lesson plans for my half day sub. Once that was done, I took a couple of Tylenol and just lay and watched The Kardashians until about 9:30 when I went up to bed. Having been too lazy to get the thermometer from upstairs sooner, I took my temperature. It was a whopping 103! There is a rule when you are undergoing chemo - if your temperature goes above 100.5, you have to call the doctor. So, I did.

While I waited for the answering service to deliver my message and for the doctor to return my call, I typed a full-day lesson plan knowing that if I had to go in to the ER, it would be a late night and if I was still running a temp, I wouldn't feel much like going in to work tomorrow. I sent that off, heard back from the doctor and Beni and I got dressed and were off to CDH ER at 10:30 p.m.

The nice thing about being a chemo patient is that there is relatively no wait in the ER. I was taken back in 5 minutes. The nurse asked how I was doing and I said that for the first time, I was really feeling like a cancer patient. I guess this temperature thing can be serious. He took us into an ER room and gave me a gown and told me to lay down and they would take care of me. I said, "Wow, do I really need to put this on?" He said, "I know you don't realize it yet, but the gravity of this is more than you know. Why do you think you got in so quickly while other people were out in the waiting room before you?" Good point. So, Beni slumped in the chair in the corner and pulled up his hood and tried to sleep. Over the course of the next 3 hours, in between cat naps, I gave a urine sample, several blood samples and a chest-x-ray. Everything came back good, so at 1:30 a.m. I was released. If a sign of infection had been found, I would have had to stay hooked up to IVs for a while. Luckily, the temperature was just a freak thing, and no IVs were needed.

So, from this experience I have learned several things.

1. I don't want to have to return to the ER for a temperature again, if possible.

2. I should be less lazy and check my temperature as soon as I feel one coming on - not just as I am getting into bed.

3. If you have to go to the ER, it is good to be a chemo patient.