Well, day one of round two is nearly finished. My oncologist doesn't agree with the ER doctor that I had/have cellulitis and has recommended I discontinue the antibiotics.He also is sending me for an ultrasound of the arm after I'm done. The redness and swelling are gone but there is now a distinct lump on my forearm which he thinks may be a superficial blood clot. The ultrasound will confirm.
In the meantime, they used my other arm for the infusion. The nurse (whose name is Renee) did a lower gauge catheter which hopefully should hold through tomorrow, enabling me to be pricked every two days instead of every day.
I also had a CBC (complete blood count) and all my blood levels are within the normal range.
Before I came here this morning I did have the thought "what can I do while I'm feeling normal" but other then that I was looking forward to taking this next step forward in my treatment.
UPDATE - 7:06 PM The ultrasound showed a superficial thrombosis or blood clot. I want to emphasise superficial and ignore the scary stuff in the linked wikipedia article. They do get concerned by a deep vein thrombosis but that is not what the ultrasound showed.
I was instructed to elevate my arm and apply warm compresses to speed the reabsorption of the clotted tissue, which should take a week to fully resolve.
Hopefully they'll have no issue finding enough veins in my left arm for the next four days of treatment.
Glad you were feeling normal and ready for this next round of chemo. Let us hear about your arm.
ReplyDeleteIt's a relief to know it's not an infection.
Keep blogging. Love, Mom
Superficial - I hear you. So keep your arm elevated! You can do that. You have good veins so they'll find the spots needed. The nurses are really good! So very glad that it was not an infection. Do you need DVDs to watch during the infustions? Music - maybe Mozart? Mom
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