Setbacks Happen

 

 

I thought this would be a good time for an update on me. 

On August 8, I had my first chemotherapy treatment. I experienced a day or two of diarrhea, but lots of energy loss. 

On August 14, I started a 5 day radiation strategy. This is one that I needed to use the ‘Jason’ mask for. I was still experiencing weakness, and it wasnt until day 5 of the treatment that I was able to get some Ativan to calm the claustrophobia caused by the mask. 

On August 29, I had my second round of chemotherapy. It was supposedly a lower dose of both carbo and taxol. Unfortunately, I experienced 5 straight days of diarrhea as well as complete loss of muscles. I had to have someone assist me walking down the hall as well as standing up and other daily tasks. 

On September 5, my cousin threw in the towel and called non-emergency ambulance to take me to the emergency room. As her local emergency room is not located neat my medical team, they transferred me to the hospital where my medical team was. 

I was inpatient for about a week. My blood counts (platelets, white cells, and red cells) were all at an extreme low. I slowly regained my strength, but I still needed assistance walking and doing daily tasks. 

There was also the problem that where I live, I have a set of steep stairs leading to my apartment. There was no way I would be able to make it up the stairs by myself. 

While my family rushed to find me a feasible place to live, the hospital discharged me as a regular inpatient, and admitted me to their inpatient rehabilitation. 

As part of the inpatient rehabilitation, I had to do an hour and a half of physical therapy every day as well as an hour and a half of occupational therapy every day, with a minimum of 5 days before I could discharge. 

Everything seemed to go okay with the therapies, with me gaining strength and endurance each day. But I was still not at the level that I needed to be at. 

On my last day of inpatient rehabilitation, my hemoglobins dropped a full point again. Instead of therapies, I received more blood. Thankfully, my blood counts rose up to acceptable levels. But, I still needed to wait until the next day to discharge. 

When I was discharged, there was some confusion about where I was supposed to go. My cousin said I should go to her house, but while I was doing my rehabilitation, arrangements had been made for me to move into an assisted living center. The social worker that was handling my case said the assisted living center was ready for me to move in, so she had my transportation take me to the assisted living center. 

Turns out they weren’t quite ready. They put me up in their model room overnight and the next day my bed, dresser and larger items were set up in my actual room. 

I forgot to mention - while I was inpatient, my oncologists decided to stop all treatments. On October 3, I had more scans done and I will find out on October 17 the results of these scans and the oncologist's plan of treatment going forward. ⁣

With all of the setbacks that I have experienced the past two months, I managed to keep a positive attitude about it all. It’s what has kept me going. 

Until next time… 

This week’s #WhenIDieMakeSureMyNailsAreDone