Merry Christmas!
Sorry it has taken me so long to write this post but I had a lot to process. Thank you for your continued prayers.
Chemotherapy #6 left me very tired and a little nausous for about two weeks. During that time I developed a sore near my buttock/rectum. On November 14th I was scheduled for my next CT scan to check on the cancerous lymph nodes. That CT scan showed that the lymph nodes were stable and that I had developed an abscess near my rectum. My oncology team called me the next morning and told me to come in to be checked and to pack a bag for the hospital incase I needed to be admitted. Well, that checkup turned into a 14 day hospital stay resulting in 2 surgeries.
Once I got checked into the hospital I met with the general surgery team and they decided that they were going to do a debridement surgery the next day. Meaning they were going to scrape out any dead tissue so new healthy tissue would grow. The surgery went well but over the next couple of days my white blood cells keep climbing higher despite being on lots of IV antibiotics. Meaning the infection wasn't getting better but worse. Three days later the general surgery team decided to do a 2nd surgery while consulting the colorectal team. Together they decided to try a fairly new procedure. They inserted two Penrose drains to help the infection drain from my body. The plan was to leave those in for 3-4 weeks and then get them removed. As you can imagine it was very painful to sit on these. The day after that surgery my white blood cell count started to come down. Which meant that the drains were working and the infection was leaving my body. They kept me in the hospital for another 10 days because of my compromised immune system and the difficulty in keeping the drains clean. I was released to go home the day after Thanksgiving with my drains still intact.
I had a followup with the general surgery team on December 4th. At that time they decided to remove one of the drains. This made it a little better to sit. The last drain was removed at my last checkup last week. Now we wait for the holes to heal and close up.
So, what caused all this to happen? One of my chemo drugs, Avastin. Needless to say my oncologist has decided that I will be permanently taken off of Avastin. We will wait for this to heal 100% before resuming any more of my chemo treatments.
Prayers:
- For my body to heal 100% from this so I can get back to my treatments
- For NO more side effects
- For me to gain my strength back
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