Tuesday, 27 August 2013

Post-Radiotherapy: Chemotherapy Cycle #02 Treatment #01a

I was supposed to have the first treatment of my 2nd Cycle of Chemotherapy on 16TH August and thus my blood test on 15th August. However, on 15th August morning around 5:00am, I developed a fever and it was as high as 39.5 oC. In actuality, as soon as I developed a high fever, I should have headed to TTSH’s Accident and Emergency Department to have a blood test done and for the observation but as with most of us including myself, I did what came purely automatically and popped 2 panadol and went back to sleep hoping that the fever will subside. The fever did subside and it was down to about 37.5oC to 3.9oC at around 8:30am.

There is an overlap to this entry as it happened on the same day as my appointment with my Palliative Care Specialist

Called the chemotherapy clinic at about 9:30am to update the nurses there and ask as to what I am supposed to do next and well… I got a ticking off from the nurse as I was not supposed to take the panadol. The simple reason been that the panadol could mask the primary cause of the fever and this would make follow-up and treatment difficult should the cause be something serious. It was also from here on that I had difficulty “restarting” posting on my blog as a whole host of events occurred that really make me feel unwell that I simply do not have the energy to do anything else especially blogging.

The nurse was “at a lost” as to what to do next and I told her that I have an appointment with the palliative care specialist that afternoon and thus I was told to proceed to TTSH anyway to have the blood test done and decide what to do next. Based on the blood test done on 15th August, I should be able to proceed with the chemotherapy on 16th August as my platelet count was very good at 250+. The first time it had hit 150+ since last August 2012. Long story short again, in the previous post, I had spoken about the situation and appointment with the Palliative Care Specialist, based on blood test result and consultation with Chemo-MO on duty, they will plan to proceed with my chemotherapy on 16th August.

However on 16th August, I was having this terrible backache like those that you get when you have a bad flu and you have aches all over your body especially the back. Checked with the Chemo-MO on duty and she checked with my Medical Oncologist and they concluded that better to be on the safe side and postpone my chemotherapy and put me on flu medical (i.e. Panadol and Antibiotic).

In God We Trust and in Christ alone my hope is found.
Hebrews 11:1

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