|
Yesterday began with encouraging news and ended with a strange fever episode.
Tuesday, I flew down to Houston for a CT Scan and a few other tests. The surgeon said this upcoming surgery was contingent upon this being a good scan, showing nothing new and hopefully more shrinkage of the tumor. I spoke with a nurse at MD Anderson yesterday morning and she told me that the preliminary (she made me repeat the word verbally, "preliminary") result was that there was some shrinkage and everything looks good towards surgery. So it looks like we're still on course for the surgery next Friday. This was quite encouraging to me and Christine.
As I finished up at work and laid on the couch upon arriving home, I increasingly felt sick and extraorinarily fatigued. This accellerated to the point of causing concern. My temperature was rising steadily and was at 101.4 when I gave my oncologist a page. The normal protocol for chemo patients is to go straight to the ER if the temperature goes above 101. I really did not want to go again for yet another night at the hospital. Dr. Hoff called me and discussed the situation. It had been a few weeks since the last chemo dose. More importantly (and quite fortunately) I had blood work done on Tuesday, just two days earlier. It showed a normal white blood cell count, from which he was willing to wait this out a little longer before sending me to the E.R. The hope was that this was a virus of some sort. I made a call to my brother elders, who were at another monthly meeting I was missing, and asked for them to pray for the situation. I made an arrangement for a possible ride to the ER in the middle of the night, and then Christine helped me into bed. I curled into a fetal position, not knowing how this fit into all that was happening and how it might change the plans for the next week.
I don't know how long I thrashed there in that feverish existence between being asleep and and being awake, but it seemed to be endless. But after a while I must have fallen asleep, for I awoke at around 2am relieved it was so late. I took my temperature and the fever was gone. This morning, I felt much better, almost as if the evening before was just a bad dream. Maybe it was.
So passes yet another twist and turn in this odd battle. I'm not attempting to make sense of this episode - I don't really have the energy. I'm just going to let this one go.
Posted by Greg at February 11, 2005 05:49 PM | Comments (5)