Feverish family
Originally published at magependragon.co.za .
Tuesday - 8 January 2013
I was still feverish this morning, perhaps even worse so as I'm also nauseus too. When mom came in I was huddled on the couch, fully bundled up but actually sweating too. She panicked and hauled me down to GVI Oncology to see the trial doc. I felt too steamrolled to protest much.
The trial doc though ... I don't really know what to say ... Clinical Research Physician but doesn't even bother to look me over or do a basic vitals check. Just sits there behind her desk, checks some numbers and takes me off the treatment meds for 2 weeks. Um Hello?! I don't understand. How can the treatment shrink the tumour if I'm not taking it? How can she "prescribe" treatment without giving me the once over? She said something about not killing me, letting the side-effects abate and figures for the trial. I think she is most concerned about the last one.
Back at home, I'm now in pain too. I need to eat so I can take my pain meds but I'm too nauseous to eat so can't take them but could be nauseous from the pain so should take them. I have this issue about taking meds that I'm just going to sick out again, so I lie their trying to will away the nausea. Mom makes me a sandwich and a mug of tea. I send her to buy some Panado (we're a Disprin family) and a thermometer (not an under-the-tongue type.) If I'm running hotter than 38C then things are worse than we thought. Hopefully it wont be.
I lie on the couch, sweating and watching The X-files. I eventually manage half a sandwich and gulp down a cocktail of 2x Tramacet, 2x Panado and 1x CataflamD. Hopefully that will knock me out so I can sleep through this. Temperature reads at 39C, or at least mom says it does from the colour coded forehead measuring strip. I'll trust it for now as I feel awful. We agree to not rush me to hospital unless it goes up or doesn't break by dinner time. 38C is meant to be the upper limit before you rush to the hospital. I've been running fevers for the better part of 6-8 months, I'll just sleep through this, I'll be fine.
I wake. I'm fine. I'm up and moving around, even hungry. I phone my cousin, @LawyerKate, who panicked, phoning my mom and offering to sit with me through the night. I love her to bits but this is unecessary. The fever has now broken, I'm soaked through as expected. I must remember that Tramacet+Panado+CataflamD cocktail for the next time. It killed the fever real quick. The temperature was 39C, it's now 36C.
I eat, I blog and later my cousin arrives to visit. She visited with her cat first - we had thought Socks was on her last legs, being old and not eating. We were wrong. She's just a grumpy cat. My cousin "scolds" me for making her worry, I scold her straight back for blowing things out of proportion. Yes, I put that I had a fever on Facebook but I also put regular updates like going to the trial doc and when the fever broke. I also told she should phone me and not bother my mom if she's worried. She didn't want to disturb me in case I was sleeping. I told her she could wake me anytime.
That done we discuss her plans for this year. She passed all her bar exams and will be admitted to the High Court as a fully fledged lawyer sometime soon. I'm so proud of her. She has a couple of career opportunities that she's chasing right now that are law related but not directly being a lawyer as she not sure she wants to be a lawyer. Her man, @SeanSMLeask, is supporting her and keeping her calm as far as he can while he also chases some goals. I hope both of their current plans pan out as they want them to or better.
I'm now feeling flat and head to bed for an early-ish night after a decent dinner and another blog post.
Amusing video I came across on Facebook while I was trying not to die on the couch this afternoon. It's actually an UK advert for the new Fiat500L, but most of us wouldn't notice that until the end.