15. Post Chemo

For 5 days after the chemo I had to have Filgrastim injections. These help boost my white blood cells to reduce chances of infections. The side effects of these are aching in the bones and muscles. Again, with Fibro I’m used to this but with chemo on top it felt like having the flu with a Fibro flare up at the same time. Co-codamol and naproxen are my friends for those 5 days.

On the Wednesday I went back to the hospital to go to Ambulatory Care, another 2-3 hours there to check bloods etc. They were concerned over high white blood cell count, so then rang my oncologist to check. As I am having Filgrastim injections this is expected so they were happy and I was able to go home.

The following week, I had a text for my Covid vaccination. I clicked on the link thinking it would be in a week or so, but I could actually get booked in for the next day. I had a check-up call with the Macmillan Nurse so I did just check that it was ok to have.

Luckily I could get booked into a vaccine centre in my local town, so I wondered on down, joined the non-existent queue and was handed a fresh mask and walked on into the centre. I gave my name at the desk and was sat down with a nurse immediately. She asked me some questions and wanted to inject in my non-dominant arm, but due to my PICC Line they couldn’t, so had to do it in the other one.

Quick scratch, as they always say, and done. I was handed a card showing I’d had the jab and I was told not to lose it! As I was leaving I was asked if I drove down and if I had you had to wait 15 mins just in case you have any reactions. As I walked I could go straight home.

I felt fine that evening and started work as normal the next day, but all of a sudden, at about 9am I started feeling round, I was freezing and shaking. I took my temperature and it was up to 36.8°, higher than my normal temp. Within 30 mins it had gone up to over 37.5°, so I rang the cancer helpline. I was on the phone for a little while and they told me to take my temp again and it was over 38°, so they said I needed to go to A&E…….(Again!!). That’s the 3rd time in 2 weeks!

Dan was tied up with work and I didn’t feel well enough to drive myself so I called on my fabulous neighbours who dropped me off.

Again they took my temp at the door of A&E and I explained it is high, they put me in my own room again and started on tests. They do a fast track covid test, which for some reason came back positive at first (these are only 60% accurate). So I had a chest X-Ray which was all clear and one of the full Covid swab, which takes a few hours to get the result.

Next steps was bloods. They wanted to make sure my PICC Line had no signs of infection so I had to have blood taken from both arms, so I had a person either side draining all my blood! They also gave me some Antibiotics (just in case) and some Paracetamol.

So now its just a sit and wait! 30 mins later I needed the toilet, but due to me isolating they didn’t want me using the main toilets so they brought me in a commode. Now this is the first time ive ever used a commode! It was weird, I was all hooked up with monitors are a drip and had to navigate on this chair. I scooted off the bed and onto the chair. Took me a while to relax enough to go!

Once I was finished, I was like what do I do next?! I closed the lid and got onto the bed. I hate having someone look after me, so for someone to be cleaning up a commode I felt guilty!

After a few hours my Covid results came back negative, Chest X-Ray was clear, Bloods all ok and the paracetamol had brought my temperature down, so I was all set to go home.

Another 2 weeks of rest/work and it all starts again!