Let me just apologise in advanced for the layout, grammar and punctuation of this post. It's being written from a hospital bed on my iPhone which is not easy!
Where do I start? It is now midday on a Sunday. I've been here in this room almost constantly since 8am on Thursday morning. Chemo on Tuesday was long but relatively smooth. The picc line was a blessing, avoiding both the pain and needles I usually experience. But on Wednesday afternoon I spiked a temperature of 39.4 and knew that I would probably be making my way back into hospital very shortly. Over night we controlled my temperature with paracetamol and the next morning I was in hospital bright and early. At first I was given an IV antibiotic (through my picc line of course) which would cover a wide spectrum of bacterial infections. My temperature began to steady out and has been fine since. But my neutrophil and general white blood cell levels in my blood have not had such an easy journey. On Thursday there was no neutrophils showing and a low level of white blood cells, about 0.4. By yesterday my neutrophils were up to 0.7 (once they are above 1 I'm considered safe and no longer neutropenic). So I was hopeful that today I'd be going home! But a blood test this morning showed that the neutrophil level had dropped and again were not detected. So back to square one it seems.
Yesterday the blood cultures from a few days ago identified the infection as a coag negative staph infection, one which is common with picc lines. So I'm now on a more specific antibiotics for the next week along with neutrophil booster injections daily. Fingers crossed they do the job!
Sorry it's not an overly interesting or upbeat update from me today. Lets just hope I'm out of this place in the next couple of days and back to normality, until my next chemo of course. Oh and needless to say I have missed the Edinburgh fringe festival which myself and my family were so looking forward to attending this weekend.. There's always next year eh?
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