Wednesday, June 6, 2007

You Give me Fever

I didn't feel so well this morning, but I had a blood transfusion overnight and I was very anxious and nervous about it so I didn't sleep very well. I took a nap after breakfast (a 3-hour power nap) and started feel pretty good around noon. I had a high fever yesterday, but yesterday was my NADIR day (my really bad day, when I hit my all-time low) and I was supposed to be feeling better today. I really think it was the anxiety of the transfusion - seeing a dark red liquid go into my body is not so easy to take. It took so long to get the transfusion set up that they had to run it overnight. I also broke out with hives right before the transfusion so the nurse gave me some benadryl. I was hoping the benadryl would have knocked me out, but no such luck.

fter my nap and a frozen slushie , I felt much better. However, Mike touched my forehead about an hour ago and I felt hot so he used the temperature contraption to take my temperature, and it was 39.3 Celsius, or 102.8. When the nurse took my temperature, it was even higher: 40.0, or 104.0. Mike jumped into action and asked for an ice pack to bring my fever down. The nurse and doctor jumped into action and order blood cultures to see what's going on with my body. Yucky. I clutched my phlebotomy/IV companion - Charlie, my stuffed bear and got through it.

They have hung an antibiotic bag, but no word yet on what else they're going to do about the fever. They usually push an antibiotic and give me Tylenol.

Re: Nutrition
The nutritionist came up again this morning and gave me some good suggestions. They have these biotene slushie beverages that are 400 calories. They are also cold, which helps tremendously. She also suggested that I drink Boost over ice because the warm one I had yesterday, came back up later. Boost has 240 calories. She also suggested that I add cashews, frozen bananas, other frozen fruit, or light corn syrup to my smoothies at home for extra calories. She also gave me a bag of the slushie mix to take home. I also received a booklet about shakes, supplements, and more, and one suggestion was Kool-Aid and those instant carnation breakfasts. I can also make a orange sherbet/ginger ale smoothie at home. All of those ideas sound delicious, especially when water starts to taste "funny." I hope these ideas help on this next cycle, which starts next Friday.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Angela, I arrived at the end of your power-nap. You were sound asleep when I stopped by your room. A thought to steal your bedpan crossed my mind, but I only have one really clean lab coat. :)

I missed you again around 3pm on my return trip from the hematology lab and to the coffee shop. Enjoy the slushies. We are praying for you and Mike.

Greg and Camille
ps Mary says gah

Anonymous said...

Hi Angela! I am still on the road but popped into an internet cafe here in dubrovnik to see how you are doing. I am so sorry to hear that you are back in the hospital. Hope they spring you soon, and please post some more updates. I have some time to kill before my flight home--I think I will spend it looking for something to bribe you to hurry up, kill Priscilla already and get well! Gila

BTW, is that Julie B Julie from Seneca Valley