Last week was rough on all of us.
Hubby went back to work full time on Monday, so baby girl and I were back to our old routine pre-cancer diagnosis. The first day back was tough. I was used to someone always being around and so I had forgotten how to juggle baby girl and my needs (like going to the bathroom!). Plus, baby girl is now crawling and walking around which is much different than when I was taking care of her alone. By Tuesday though, we had settled into our old routine and things were looking up. I took her to one of the local walking trails and we spent an hour happily meandering through the hillsides of the East Bay.
Then stuff starting going funny.
As were were leaving the park, I noticed my hands had bites all over them and were itching insanely. I didn’t remember getting bit, so I started to wonder if this was going to be another rashy episode for me. I had planned to run some errands, but the itch was so bad, I came straight home and slathered my hands in corticosteroid cream. As the day progressed, the itching subsided but did not completely go away. Around 4, my hands started getting swollen just as my feet had during the last chemo session. I increased my water intake and started stroking my hands in a way that the fluid build up would flow backwards out of my hands. At the same time, I was having an intense heart burn episode. Luckily for me, hubby happened to get home at the same time providing much needed baby girl relief. I went and laid down trying to not think about the itch, my heart burn and general malaise.
About 2 hours later, I woke up to bites all over my body. My hands were bright red and completely swollen. I could not even make a fist. The bites were all down the side of my body where I had been laying on our bed. The only thing that I could think of was that our pets had gotten fleas and they were in our bed. I immediately stripped all the bedding off and gave our pets a flea treatment. Thinking I had solved the problem, I went to tell hubby about our new flea issue. Except, more bumps were showing up on my body! I called the advice nurse for my health plan and she told me to go straight to the emergency room.
I made it to the ER around 10 pm. The ER doctor immediately diagnosed me with hives and gave me a shot of epinephrine as the hives and swelling were getting worse. It took about 45 minutes before it kicked in, but when it did, man, was relief awesome. I ended up staying in the ER until about 3:00 a.m. but I was fine with it. Hubby and baby girl stayed home so I didn’t have to worry about them. Hubby was relieved that I was okay and he and I finally fell asleep around 4:00 a.m.
The rest of the week I spent fighting with recurring episodes of hives. I met with an allergist who told me there was no way to determine what caused the hives, other than saying it wasn’t something I ate. She also told me that there was no test that would give me a definitive answer as to what was causing me to have all these skin issues. Bottom line, the consensus was that I have a temporary auto-immune condition in which my body is still in fight mode over cancer. Basically, my body is in over drive, and attacking itself when it shouldn’t.
I was put on a steroid and zyrtec regiment. It’s been working out okay.
A few days later my surgeon put me on an anti-biotic regiment because my right breast (the one with the lump) is a bright red color which means I may have an infection. Because I don’t have a fever and my breast skin is not hot to the touch, my surgeon can’t quite determine if I have an infection or not.
I did say it was a rough week right?
Really, all I can do is just shake my head and laugh. All I keep thinking in my head is: “Really?”
On the brighter side of things, next week I will have my 3rd treatment. After that, only one more chemo treatment left! That thought keeps me so happy and excited. Crazy right?
Family Life in the Fast Lane 