Home After Chemo #3 - November 19-25

As usual, after chemo I felt pretty good. And it is always good to be home. Other than going out the next afternoon to get my Neulasta shot (to boost my white blood cells), my next planned visit to the hospital was on the 25th for labs and to change my PICC line dressing.

Each and every day I was so grateful to be healthy and at home. This round brought with it more trouble with nausea than the time before and sooner than day four. Thankfully, the medicine they gave me takes care of that, though not always right away.

Wednesday morning the 25th, day 6 after chemo, my temperature was slightly elevated (ranged from 99.6 to 100.0). I took some Tylenol because I also had a headache. My temperature dropped back to nearly normal before we went to the hospital for labs. And I felt good at that time - with no more headache.

After we got home and had lunch, I took a nap for a couple of hours. And I did not want to wake up. Then I watched a movie on TV, "Free Birds", and fought sleep much of the time. About 5:45 PM I woke up again and felt lousy, so I decided to take my temperature. 101.8. Again.

Just as I started taking my temperature, Hope called Denise because her computer was not working. I had to tell them that I was unable to help with that because I was feeling so bad. (When I felt better I talked to Hope about it.) And I told Denise that we needed to go to the ER. Again.

So we rounded up the things that I would need in the hospital, knowing that they would be admitting me. And that meant spending Thanksgiving in the hospital. Not our plans. So be it. God still has everything under control.

Knowing that my immune system would be near its lowest, I had already planned on not gathering with family that day. However, I was looking forward to being at home - and was hoping that I would not become neutropenic as I had the previous two rounds of chemo. We do not always get what we hope for.

Denise and I left home a little after 6 PM. Unfortunately, this scenario has become somewhat "normal" for us now. Hopefully, this is hospital stay will not be more than 5 days.