I got my get out of hospital card this afternoon, but unlike the monopoly game get out of jail card I am sure these last 5 days will not be free, lol. So thankful for insurance, and I'll just hit my deductible & out-of-pocket real early this year.
I've been dealing with what we thought was shingles for months now as I mentioned before, and unfortunately one of the spots got infected. A trip to urgent care 2+weeks ago gave me one medicine which did not seem to be working; a week later at my primary care, she gave me a stronger antibiotic which I gave some time to work, but by Monday of this week, I felt that it was looking worse and continuing to spread not getting better. Another visit to my primary care Monday afternoon, and I was told to go to the ER as it was going to probably need iv antibiotics. With all of this, I was also having some other issues with side-effects as well which made everything more complicated.
The ER was quite an experience, and I made sure to have a mask on before I walked in the door. When I got there, they told us it was a 4 1/2 hour wait and the waiting room was packed and very scary with all kinds of germs. After telling her that I was on cancer medication, the er front desk did tell us that she would try to get us in as soon as possible to triage. We did get back for triage pretty quickly, and interestingly the triage nurse was a former Adams band parent. The doctor we saw there said that I'd probably be admitted which I wasn't surprised by at this point. We got back into an ER room, saw another doctor, got confirmation that I'd be admitted, but told that there were no rooms available, & I was #28 in line for a room. So, I spent the night on a stretcher with no pillow which wasn't very comfortable, but poor mom had to spend the night in the only chair available - a folding plastic one. (poor thing - I felt so bad for her) I have to say that even though the ER was super crazy that night, every person that worked with us was so nice and patient. It really made what could have been a super stressful situation so much less so.
The next day, after seeing a couple of other doctors, we got into a room in the Women's Center around 11AM. I was so thankful that I was there in the surgical ward of the Women's Center rather than in the main hospital among all the crazy germs. The nurses and all of the staff that I had were AMAZING! I can not say enough nice things about the care that I received there.
While there, I think I got put on every anti-type of medicine you can imagine: antibiotics, anti-virals, etc. If it had an anti in front of its name, I was on it because they were trying to figure out exactly what was going on and battle multiple things at once -- the possible shingles & the infection itself. I had previously had two different doctors tell me I had shingles, but the blood culture was negative for shingles. The oncologist from my cancer group that saw me believes that it really is a rash from Afinitor and that the multiple issues I was having were all side effects from the cancer treatment. She recommended that the dose of Afinitor be reduced as there are several lower dose options, but during this time I was still taking the full dose while in the hospital. I had a really hard time with that at first, but she calmly stated "this dose put you in the hospital, that is not something that can keep happening." They also reminded me that it is better to be on a lower dose for longer than having to completely stop the medicine b/c of the side effects.
She consulted with Dr. Cogburn, my oncologist. The decision made today was to stop the Afinitor briefly, for a week, to see what happens with the rash. She also wants me to go ahead and get the ptscan done quicker than previously planned. Once we know the results of both of those things, she will figure out how we proceed.
I did not not realize how bad the infection and everything had been making me feel until I got some of those iv antibiotics. On Wednesday, after 24 hours of them, I was already feeling much, much better. I was released with multiple medicines to continue to work on the infection, and I'm not sure that I have ever been so happy to get home as I was this afternoon.
Thank you for the prayers and well wishes while I was in the hospital! I would also appreciate prayers for the upcoming pt scan and wisdom for my oncologist to make the best decisions possible in regards to the cancer medication changes.
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