Infected boil after chemo
On Day 13 of cycle 1 of AC/Pax, I developed a huge boil on my outer vulva; it quickly became infected and responded to no topical treatment. Easter weekend. I should have immediately called ambulance, but didn't (my temp didn't hit 38 deg). Silly me. Saw GP on the Tuesday; he put me on antibiotics. It started to respond, but two days later, flared up again. Ambulance to hospital. Emergency dept - blood tests, swabs, IV antibiotics. Neutropenic with white cell count of 0.42 (minimum healthy is 4.0). 16.5 hrs in emergency before being transferred to an oncology ward. Four days in hospital, diarrhoea caused by the IV ABs, and risk that I couldn't have chemo on the Monday. I was so distressed by that. Finally at the last minute the oncologist gave the green light. However, she forgot to prescribe the G-CSF injection, which should have been done because I'd had a neutropenic incident. Fortunately, the superb chemo nurse picked up on that and got it corrected. I've learned a lot through this incident. For one thing, apparently our skin and hair always harbour bacteria which are usually dealt with by our white cells; but because they were so low, thanks to chemo, that didn't happen. It seems this can be quite common.The chemo nurse recommended an additional measure to minimise risk of a similar event, by having a warm saline sitz-bath a couple of times a day (huge new kitty litter tray on upturned milk crate in bathtub, because my dodgy knee prevents me from getting in and out of bath ! hilarious.) Now at Day 10 of cycle 2 and fingers crossed. And I've learned (and been instructed now) to call ambulance at ANY time if I'm concerned that things are not right.
