Dick was making a slow recovery from the radiation therapy. He has had some pain relief in that he is taking meds for breakthrough pain less often. He usually is in sweat and t-shirt but Saturday he put on slacks and a polo shirt and looked like he was ready to go out. We decided to go see Mama Mia and have dinner out. He left the screen room about 2/3 of the way through the movie and then didn't return.
I thought he must have gone to the bathroom so sat outside of the men's room waiting for him. After 15 minutes I asked one of the ushers to check on him. Dick was in there and told the usher he was OK. A few minutes later the Manager asked if it was my husband in there hunched over the sink. He was not alright. He had started throwing up as he left the movie.
What is it about people that they will say they are OK when they are not?
Security helped get him to the car and then we had the decision ER or go home. We decided to go home and wait to see if there were more problems. His temp was normal and his blood sugar was normal. We couldn't figure out what had made him sick. He started to spike a fever but never quite bad enough to call the ambulance. If I drive him to the ER he could sit in the waiting room for hours whereas if he goes by ambulance he gets seen right away.
We passed that crisis and he made it to the Cancer Center for his blood draw yesterday. His hemoglobin, white cell count and platelets have been dropping every week since the radiation. When I saw the lab results we asked for a blood transfusion. He will be getting one today along with a shot to boost the white cell production. He has not had to have that shot before. He gets Procrit weekly.
This morning when I went to wake him he was almost non responsive I took his blood glucose reading and is was extremely low at 48. I managed to get 6 glucose tabs into him along with some water and he came around in about 30 minutes. We don't know why he is getting so many lows. He has reduced his insulin to almost nothing.
I don't know what is more wearing the daily grind or the periodic crises.
