Day 90

 I need to update everyone on my busy weekend.

Saturday -   I went to the emergency room in round rock for chest pain.  I had never had it before like this so my doctor said they needed to check it out.  They did blood tests and my platelets we at 12, very low.  Below 10 your body can just spontaneously bleed externally and internally.  I couldn't get the platelets I needed there because they didn't have irradiated ones and with the weekend it would take many hours or a day to get them.  I could just wait until I saw my doctor on Monday.  They did an EKG , chest x-Ray, and chest ct-scan which all came back perfect!  I knew I was not having a heart attack but with my condition people can go from good to bad quickly so everything has to be checked out, even if it makes me feel dumb.

Sunday - I woke up with blood in my mouth and new bruises on my hand and legs.  I gargles with salt and baking soda mixture to try and help stop the bleeding.  After about an hour and a half of continued bleeding I decided to go to the ER in south Austin where they would better take care of me. After 3 hours and some forceful negotiating I was up on the oncology floor for outpatient blood transfusion of  2 units red blood and one platelets.  About 1 hour into my first bag of red blood I started to get cold and the chills.  This is how a neutropenic fever starts so I told my nurse and we watched it.  I started to shake like a crazy man and had a splitting headache so the doc gave me two Tylenol which didn't help.  An hour later the fever came on even with the Tylenol , getting up to 102. My heart rate was high, around 130, I am usually 60-70. Because it was the weekend , and I was just a simple outpatient , it was very hard to get the on call oncologist on the phone.  At this point I need antibiotics ASAP in case of infection and meds to counteract any reaction to the blood.  About 30 mins later I had the worst chest pain of my life , so I called nurses which caused them to turn into superheroes.  They brought in the chest machine with paddles , EKG,  and a bunch of other meds.  My heart was, and is, fine. It was just part of the reaction to the blood.  They had to keep calling doctors to get orders and finally got me IV Benadryl and steroids to counter the response to the blood.   I have had IV Benadryl many times before but this time is made my vains and brain feel like they were on fire and fuzzy.  I yelled at the nurse "what did you put in me?"  He replied " just Benadryl , I think it is working on your blood and you really needed it."  I finally started to feel better and crashed for the night.  I woke up at 2am all wet and my fever broke.

This morning I feel great!! My platelets are up to 39 and red is 8.1, so I will get some tomorrow hopefully.   They admitted me last night, obviously, and will keep me today and tonight just go be safe.

God is great, even though I had to fight to get where I should have been, He had his perfect timing for all of this to happen where they can expertly take care of and fully know my history. I can't imagine having to do this at home and call an ambulance .