Saturday Night Fever

Ha ha! Until I wrote the title I hadn't even thought of the movie.

Yay, lucky me.  I spent Saturday night in Emerg because I had a fever.  The VGH Emerg waiting room definitely smells better than St. Paul's!

I had a fever off and on throughout the afternoon, then it settled in at just over 38 degrees and increased slightly over the next hour or so.  I admit it, Ian was making pizza for dinner so I refused to leave until after I ate.  I actually felt fine other than the fact that my brain was melting.
The Emerg staff was great.  It was Saturday night so it was pretty busy but they did their best to make sure I had prompt service.  And as I bounced around the Emerg.....I think I saw the whole area twice......I even got a private room.

I wasn't keen on it but the triage nurse gave me a mask to wear if I thought I needed it.  It made him feel better.  While another nurse was directing me to my second or third room he told me to put on the mask on and glared at me until I did it.  The only probably wearing the mask was it made my fever feel worse.  Oh well, I didn't need anymore glares.

I went through the sepsis protocol, blood cultures....all 4 bottles were collected with one poke, I thought that was weird but maybe the policy has changed since I last collected blood and I didn't mind one less poke......other bloodwork, ECG followed by chest X-ray.  I have an inverted T-wave due a slight reversal of the axis of my heart.  I suspect they just wanted to see proof of my story before they dismissed angina.

So, at the end of 3 hours I was given 2 antibiotic prescriptions and a starter dose of each and sent on my way.  My neutrophils were a whopping 0.3 but at least my hemoglobin was ok.

And now, for the first time in my life I am on a course of antibiotics.  Joy.  I love chemo.
One drug doesn't mix well with dairy or iron pills or calcium pills or something else but I don't take the something else so I don't care about that.  To be able to eat dairy it has to be 2 hours before a dose or 6 hours after the dose.  Fortunately it is the pill I take every 12 hours and not the one I have take every 8 hours so I can still fit yogurt into my day.

My fever is gone now and I feel totally fine.  The Emerg doc did ask if I had had previous fevers which makes me think I may get to this again some time.  Hopefully not, but if it does maybe it won't be on a Saturday at dinner time during the football game.  At least the Lions won:)