Baldies' Blog began originally in the UK by a 26 year old journalist with a blood cancer on a mission to inform the world about bone marrow donation.

He has since died, and I took on the cause of making cancer care more transparent for everybody.

Cancer is a disease that will touch everybody through diagnosis or affiliation: 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed and 1 in 3 woman will hear those words, "You Have Cancer."

I invite you to read how I feel along my journey and
how I am continuing to live a full life alongside my Hodgkin's lymphoma, with me controlling my cancer, not my cancer controlling me.

I hope that "Baldies' Blog" will prepare you to handle whatever life sends you, but especially if it's the message, "You Have Cancer."

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Friday, November 21, 2008

Cancer College

Yesterday, my temperatures decided to fluctuate with a range from 100.8 with a productive (yellow, green, with red streaks = infectious) disgusting cough to 96.6 (I have no idea what that’s about, hopefully an error).
Either way, I decided to err on the side of caution and call my NP Melissa.
Melissa decided she didn’t like what she was hearing and consulted Dr. Alyea. Dr. Alyea, playing bad cop, insisted I should come do Boston immediately.
Fifteen minutes later, I’m packed and out the door. Who can beat that record? We left at 1:48 and arrived around 4 pm.
Me, being who I am, got on the phone and notified three separate people I would be in town so they could hang out at my bedside while I’m miserable. Thanks ladies. You rock. You also make my life that much happier and easier.
I’ll be receiving fluids and an IV cephalosporin for pneumonia. I may need to be increased to vancomycin depending on the effectiveness. I had blood cultures drawn first, of course, and a nasal lavage.
I don’t care that is has lavage in the name and sounds nice. I put my head back, one person puts saline up one nostril and another sucks it out the other side. It’s uncomfortable.
I finally made it to my bed on 4c about 7 pm to get myself cozy. What an adventure.
I’ve been trying to prevent or fight off pneumonia from the day of transplant. I’ve taken Mepron, Bactrim, Levaquin, and when those failed, I’m not taking IV Ceft something, with the possibility of vanco in my future.
See I'm learning a lot. I have the exact process that should be undertaken with a patient like me memorized. Let's think of this like cancer college.
I’m blessed, this was caught early. It is a manageable side effect. Early detection was priceless and fast action on the part of the hospital is fabulous.
I’ll hopefully be out of here in 48 hours.
Keep Saying those prayers for me.

1 comment:

emjay. said...

Hillary,

I'm off at 2pm, need any gossip mags or some company for a while? let me know I'd love to say hi :)