A Long Week

Remember when I said I was having stomach trouble and they wanted to rule out an infection? Unfortunately, it could not be ruled out. The day before chemo I had a rough day with my stomach and at chemo I couldn't keep my eyes open. Then Friday I started feeling terrible. I thought the chemo was just hitting me a little harder, a little faster as usually I feel pretty good until the Sunday after. I had a rough couple of days, my nausea meds weren't helping and by Sunday I couldn't eat or drink. I should have known then that something more serious was wrong but a few hours of feeling a little better mid-day made me think that it was just the chemo and I was in for a rough ride. After being up much of the night Sunday I woke Daniel up early Monday to take me to the emergency room. 

They immediately put me on fluids and nausea meds and sent me for a an extensive ultrasound of my abdomen. Within a couple of hours they confirmed it was what my doctor wanted to rule out a few days earlier -- cdiff. Short for clostridium difficile colitis -- it's a pretty wicked, highly-contagious intestinal infection. We aren't sure how I got it.  

The silver lining -- I immediately got my own room at the hospital because it's so contagious. As I would be there for the next several days this was appreciated more and more. Everyone at Beaumont took great care of me. Though they hoped I would start showing signs of improvement after 24 hours of antibiotics, it was a few days before I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. By Saturday afternoon I improved enough to be sent home. I'm on this antibiotic for another week and they said they were going to order a week of it every time I have chemo. Apparently reoccurrence of cdiff is really high and they're hoping that can keep it at bay. Anyone who knows me knows I hate taking antibiotics and I would rather treat things naturally, but obviously this whole situation has somewhat thrown that out the window. My naturopath is getting me all set on some stuff to rebuild my gut so fingers crossed I don't wind up with another case of it. It really was no fun.

Today I mostly feel good, just tired and a little out of it. Lots of appointments this week and next. Here's hoping we have a nice, calm week and a half before my next chemo on the 8th.