August 16, 2023
Everything about this cancer journey has been hard and filled with obstacles. It's so hard to have a good attitude about anything these days. So, I apologize in advance to anyone who reads this.
I had surgery on August 4, 2023 to clean and restitch my wounds from the Lumpectomy/Breast Reduction surgery. The surgery itself went ok, as far as I can tell. Of course, the doctor was running late and it was delayed about 3 hours. 😞 They tried to threaten that I would have to stay in the hospital that night but luckily allowed me to go home with my compression socks. LOL The first night I was knocked out on pain meds. But I only took the one dose of pain meds and didn't need any more than that. And I actually felt much better with the open wound closed.
I had my follow up with the surgeon on Wednesday, August 9th and after another lengthy wait and threats of him not showing up for hours, I finally saw him for all of 10-30 seconds. He looked at the wounds, said they look good and I'm good to have chemo 2 weeks from the surgery date. I also had an appointment with my oncologist earlier in the day and she said that I can start my chemo on August 22nd, as long as surgeon has ok'ed it. Progress is good and it seems we have a new timeline so I feel better about that.
After surgery, they gave me an antibiotic to take (Bactrim). After a couple days of taking it, I was feeling really bad. So I called and they prescribed another antibiotic to take instead, which I handled much better. On Thursday, August 10th they called me and said that the samples they sent out from the surgery showed that I did have an infection and so they had to give me a different antibiotic that would fight this particular infection. (I had to look it up but it was a bacterial infection). I was very surprised because I didn't even know that there were samples being sent for testing or that this was happening. Because this doctor does not believe in full communication with patients. When I picked up the antibiotic up, the pharmacist said, "Drink a lot of water with this medicine. Oh, and any extraneous exercise could cause your tendons to burst." 😟 I'm sorry, what?? When I get home, I see this medicine (Levofloxacin) comes with a lengthy 5 page addendum of all the terrible life threatening side effects it could have. The paper opens up with "Levofloxacin tablets, a fluoroquinolone antibiotic, can cause serious side effects. Some of these serious side effects can happen at the same time and could result in death." Well, yeah, sign me up then!! I am not gonna lie, I had a bit of freakout and definitely did not sleep that night, not knowing how I would react to them and thinking I could die at any moment. So, it was a rough couple days after first taking them. But so far, I have not had any life threatening side effects, so that is good! But nothing in this process seems easy and I hate that I have to count the days until I'm off this medicine so I don't have to worry anymore and I'm back on track. And my mental state has definitely taken another hit and I'm not sure how many more I can handle.
On Monday (Aug 14th), I talked to my nurse navigator to let her know what happened. She said that I would need to talk to the surgeons office to make sure I am still OK'ed for chemo since I got the ok before we found out about the infection and the antibiotics. 😡 I honestly didn't even think it would affect the timeline since I would be done with the pills before chemo. But, I begrudgingly called them. They call back and said he said I should delay my chemo another week. Of course, this sends me into another headspin. So, I asked how I know the infection is gone and she says I might need to see him again before chemo. Ugh. I feel like I'm going in circles. But of course, she needs to ask him and call me back. As of this point on Wed, Aug 16, I still have not heard back, even after leaving another message. Also, this means I have to call the oncologist and explain everything to them, too. When I do, it turns out my doctor is on vacation and her nurse it out. I asked the oncologists office if they could just call the surgeons office since I have to keep making all these phone calls back and forth and it's exhausting but I don't think she liked that question and I doubt they will do that. Cancer patients really need a secretary to help them deal with the back and forth between doctors. It is the most ridiculous thing I have had to deal with in this process.
Anyway, the long and short of it is that my plans are once again in limbo. I am hoping that I will be able to start chemo on Tues, August 29th but I have no guarantees or even an appointment, at this point. The oncologist wants me to see her on Aug 22nd first. I just feel like this is never going to end and I'm so over it all. I really need to have all my treatments over before the end of the year. Don't even get me started on insurance. That is a total scam, too. At least I've made it through more than half of my "death pills" and not had terrible side effects. I'm counting the days when I'm done with those, for sure. Also, I have not been sleeping well still so that doesn't help with my mental state. I wish I could fast forward through the rest of this year. I hope and pray that I can start next year after all this and in a better place.
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