Hi Keith,
I do hope that you manage to get home tomorrow… I am sure that the sense of release you get from leaving the confines of the hospital will act as a physical boost… it does for me.
I was admitted last Monday am after my bloods and a consult with a temp of 39.3 but fortunately they got my temp back to normal within 2 hours… through the magic of paracetamol.:-/ They took blood for the usual cultures and told me that if my temp stayed normal I could go home Tuesday afternoon. It stayed normal as they gave me 24 hours of IV antibiotics but come the next morning, following the 6am bloods, they informed me that my HGB had dropped from 9.3 to 7.3 (a result of the high temp apparently) so they were keeping me in for another 24 hours + 2 bags of blood later that evening. This was followed by an extension of the IV antibiotics and 2 other kinds of oral a/b's.
I was fortunate that everything fell into place and I was allowed home on Wednesday afternoon. My temperature stayed normal throughout and I don't suppose they will ever know what caused the spike. I do know that Cycle 2 of my Bendamustine will have to do with only 1 infusion… my consultant said that Bendamustine is a strong chemo and would have driven my bloods down to the point where I would have been neutropenic… she is happy that I have enough juice in me to be going on with and Cycle 3 will continue as normal.
I am convinced that my temp was connected to lack of fluids. I had 2 bad nights with chronic lack of sleep (Friday/Saturday) and I woke on Sunday and took my morning meds then fell asleep again… I didn't wake until 4.30pm and my temp was 38.6. I managed to get it down to 37.8 by drinking for Wales and then took 2 paracetamol. It stayed at around 37.6 all evening so I took another couple of paracetamol and fell asleep. I woke at 4.30am with a temp of 37.2 and thought I had cracked it but at 7am it was 39.2 so I rang in. As I had a consult that morning they told me to come in early and the rest is as above.
I have felt good since coming home (apart from my right shoulder which is 'frozen' and quite painful if I stretch) but generally I feel good… excepting that I fell asleep after my morning meds and woke an hour ago with my temp at 37.5… bit of a panic but I have drank a lot and it has stopped climbing.
I am convinced that lack of fluids has a direct effect on my temperature and I need to keep my intake up at all times. It seems stupid to compromise my health because I 'forget' to drink.
I wish you all the best in your battle to get out and stay out of hospital Keith… I hope that the CDT does its job and continues to harness your PP's and bring them down to either 0 or at least a good, controllable plateau.
Now then, where are those pesky paracetamol?;-)
Dai.
