Rough night and day
Last night was a rough night. My hemoglobin levels kept on dropping, and I ended up getting a blood transfusion. Essentially I kept hovering around the 7.4 mark then dropped to 7.2. Monitoring continued, and sometime after 11, my level dropped to 6.8. That kicked in the standard protocol of transfusing a unit of blood. It did not seem like a big deal (and it wasn't), but the process was annoying. Mainly after the blood was in my IV line had to let the saline push the remainder of the new (and hopefully younger) blood into my system. Followed by another blood draw an hour later. I was pretty much half-asleep through most of this, but I'm pretty sure I remember this pretty accurately. I'm pretty annoyed that my body needed this step. I will say that I felt better after getting the infusion of blood.
As much as I complain about the blood draws, they aren't THAT bad. Unfortunately, there is a needle shortage, and the nurses and technicians have to use needles they are not used to using. I don't fault the nurses or techs. They are using tools they are not used to using, which makes doing those tasks more difficult. I may also have defective veins. I mean, they work for me but maybe not anyone else. But I digress.
The morning seemed to be like most other mornings here on the 6th floor of the Parkview Tower. I ordered a HUGE breakfast, ate almost all of it, proceeded to walk four laps around the floor. I may have mentioned that I overdid it yesterday. So I thought maybe four laps would be an excellent light way to start. But, man, I think even four laps was overdoing it. I say that because I had an elevated temperature and elevated pulse. I even had chills again.
I spoke with the on-call surgeon, and he didn't seem too concerned about the hemoglobin; he said that if the levels don't resolve themselves, he may need to do a colonoscopy to see where I might be losing blood. Then he would fix it. I asked how, and he seemed annoyed that I asked, but I persisted and said he would use a clip to seal the leak or some other method. He did confirm my belief that if there were something terribly wrong, it would have appeared by now. I was satisfied, and he moved on to another patient. I spent the rest of the morning in bed, resting and feeling rough.
The nurse kept on looking at my vitals. She was very curious about what's been going on with me and these seemingly regular episodes with the chills and elevated temperature. She sent a couple of messages to the doctor and got him to remove the blood thinner from my medications. I am thrilled not to have injections in my stomach for now.
Karen came by, and we hung out, which was quite lovely. I forced myself to eat a light lunch. We then watched an episode of curb your enthusiasm on the iPad. It was a nice little date. I felt pretty good, probably because of the ibuprofen, so I forced myself to get up and walk some more. I insisted on doing this, despite the protests from Karen (not much, to be honest), because walking helps stimulate the bowels.
In the middle of the walk, my nurse pulled me aside and said to go to this room instead; it's your new room. So I got a private room!! I honestly didn't mind sharing a room; it was cramped and brutal to maneuver, but it worked. This new room is so very spacious and quiet!
And now for the good stuff, poop talk. That's what all this comes down to is the poop talk. I'm sure you don't want to know, and I sure as hell didn't think I'd be writing a blog about my poop, but here we are.
Today I hit a milestone. I went from watery diarrhea to a consistency of paste. It is very dark brown. A few of my insights are that it's not black, so there is no blood in my bowels, and it's not bright red, so there is no fresh blood in my bowels. The system is probably pretty sealed up (the surgeon said watertight post-surgery), and it takes some time for the colon to "wake up" and function. I suspect that this paste-like consistency is my new normal, which is better than leaving the bowel cancer to fester and grow.
There have been a lot of ups and downs between last night and today. I am sure there will be many more days and nights that go this way. But, dealing with cancer is a marathon, and I will complete the race.
Thanks for reading. Keep the prayers and vibes coming; they help.
