Infections & Hospitalizations

I want to preface this by saying that I don’t know anything official yet.

However, I said I was going to be completely transparent in this blog so here we go.

There is a possibility that the cancer may have spread.

Here’s what has happened so far.

I had my fifth round of chemo on Monday.

Tuesday I was chilling at home on my take home chemo pump like normal. Usually I feel okay on Tuesday because they pump me full of Zofran and a steroid on Monday, but this day I felt like crap. I didn’t think too much of it though because they’ve said all along that the chemo is cumulative and so far that’s been accurate. I just figured this was how bad it was getting now.

I had chills for the first time though, I remember noting that.

I felt flushed and warm but I usually do on the pump so I didn’t overthink it until Rob got home from work.

I was napping in the bed and as he lay down next to me he touched my shoulder and said I was really warm.

When I got up to pee I saw my face in the mirror and it was redder than I’ve ever seen it so I took my temp and I had a fever of 103 (insert Foreigner’s “Hot Blooded” song here).

It was after hours at that point so I called the oncologist on call and let them know. They said to head to the ER.

Long story short, I was admitted with sepsis. My blood pressure went down to 82/42 at one point and it took awhile to wrangle the fever down, but other than feeling crummy and warm, I never felt especially horrible. I’m sure if I hadn’t been active chemo, I might have noticed feeling worse.

They did a CT scan while I was still in the ER and I was told they found spots on my liver.

An MRI was done on Wednesday night but all that did was confirm the spots, not why they were there. I was told they could possibly be abscesses from the fever but because the spots are too small to biopsy, we don’t know.

My tumor markers also increased quite a bit but again, I was told that could either be from the infection or also if the cancer has masticated.

I was discharged from the hospital last night. I’m to take one course of oral antibiotics to round this out but they never did find the source of the infection.

Side note: I think that I’m going to go ahead and start avoiding big crowds and wearing masks if I have to go out now. I can’t afford (financially or otherwise) to have this happen again.

We have an appointment with my oncologist on Monday to get another scan and discuss options.

From reading the Dr notes in my chart from the hospital, it looks like IF the cancer has spread, the whipple surgery is off the table.

But of course all this is speculation at this point because we don’t know what these pesky liver spots actually are.

All I know right now is that I’m happy to be home. And the shower I had last night was epic after not having more than a few sink baths since Monday.

In conclusion, I won’t know more until Monday, if I know anything at all. It could be bad news or this could all just be a product of this mystery infection. Until told different, imma go with the infection one.

Man, having cancer is complicated. 0/10, do not recommend.