It's been awhile...
Hi All,
It has been quite a while since I posted last. After my surgery I just didn't feel up to anything much. I found the pain quite hard to deal with and of course being on Endone just zaps you as many of you can relate. Being in pain and just feeling blah is horrible and then I developed a seroma that kept getting bigger and it all got much worse. I fell into a bit of a "heap". Didn't want to do much and had no inclination for anything.
I forced myself to go to a close girlfiend's wedding and that was lovely. Then when I finally got in to see the BC nurse and they could see the seroma needed draining,,,omg! That was a really hard thing to go through. The young doctor who drained it (430mls) went in with the needle in a numb area and then proceeded to move the needle around inside me "to get all the fluid"!!! Horrible, painful experience that made me sick to my stomach. I thought, please don't let it fill up again!
Well it did, not so bad and the next time the nurse on duty drained it herself. Much better. I have had it drained 3 times in all. The pain with having a seroma is really bad and all the reading I did said it shouldn't hurt! So not true!
Well things got better as they do. The pain eased and I started to feel better. I had a niggling worry in the back of my mind about my heart after bad chest pain in recovery (third episode in 3 months), but I had seen a cardiologist and was booked in for an angiogram. That showed clear coronary arteries...thank goodness. My oncologist was relieved as well.
Last week was difficult and I was just so sick of hospitals and doctors. I wanted OFF this train! (The port-a-cath was inserted on Wednesday, so spent all day in hospital, oncology visit ready for chemo on Thursday and knew I had to be back again on Friday!)
So strange though...on Friday morning as I was getting ready for my pick up to the hospital, I suddenly realised that I felt the best I had in a long time. Really strong, in control and actually in a reasonably happy place. Don't know where it all came from, but it was a good thing because I wasn't scared and my first chemo went well. At least until I got home again. Oh goodness...the nausea was extreme! I thought I had better eat something as I hadn't had much all day. Managed a piece of dry toast with a vegemite and then sucked peppermints and drank water for the rest ot the night. That was all I could handle! So much for nutrition.
The second day after my treatment I didn't feel good, had a shower after which my hands and feet got really itchy and swollen. Then I noticed a rash starting on my arms that got worse and worse and started spreading over my body! My tongue felt funny and my son said it looked swollen! Didn't know what to do! called the Oncology ward (it was a Sunday) and was told "see a doctor". My clinic couldn't fit me in but I was told to call Medcall. I'm never usually in need of doctors like this so it's all such an unknown. The poor woman at the other end of the phone could hardly understand me my tongue was so swollen! I am so very lucky that the doctor came in under 10 minutes. He took one look at me, said anaphylactic shock and injected adrenalin. When he gave me steriods to take after 5 minutes I could hardly get my throat to work to swallow them! I had had no idea it was serious! He called an ambulance and I spent over 24 hours in hospital. Not nice at all!
None of the medical staff could figure out what had caused this. They all agreed that if it was from a chemo drug that it would have happened more quickly after treatment, so they ended up thinking it was most probably one of the anti-nausea drugs I was prescribed. Or the injection had to have on the Saturday to increase my white cell count.
I really hope they find out what it is...it was scary and the rash is horrible although nearly gone now (4 days later). It has affected me too in the way I feel.
Has anyone else ever had anything like this happen to them?
I'm struggling to eat as I just don't feel that hungry and it is so true...things just don't taste the same! Mashed kumara and peas, yoghurt, ginger beer! These are all good but I find only a little bit is enough. As my mouth feels stranger and stranger every day soft food is much easier to handle.
Also my hair has lost it sheen and bouyancy and my scalp feels dry and tingly and quite itchy. Is this the signs of it coming out? I know it's going to happen and thought I was prepared but today feel sad about it.
Would love to hear from others with seromas etc and dealing with chemo.
T. xx
