After many phone calls and many hours on the phone, with details too annoying to mention, I finally got Bell-Sympatico to set up a working connection here. I am back online.
On the medical front, my blood was tested this morning and my platelet count is still 68. Normal is 150 to 350. Also my white blood cell count is low again. I think only 2. Normal is 4-10. This means I need to keep checking my blood every morning before radiation. If my white blood cells drop below 1, or the platelets drop below 50 then I have to stop radiation again. Ok, I just put a reference to normal blood levels in the right column of this blog. My hemoglobin is ok. It is 114.
As far as the antibiotics I am taking, the way it works is this. A nurse comes in the evening, gives me one bag of cefazolin, then she attached me to a mini pump to inject half of the vancomycin (which takes one hour), wait 11 hours, and then inject the other half. This way the nurse doesn't need to sit around for an extra hour waiting for that one. The down side is that I am tethered to a pump which is in a bag somewhere between a fanny pack and a laptop bag. For the last few days, due to scheduling, I had to take it to the hospital with me for radiation. Still, this is a very minor hassle compared to what I went through as an inpatient. Especially up until they agreed to let me take something for my diarrhea when I finally came through negative for c.difficile.
I need to take do this for 2 weeks. I hope the antibiotics work. I am still getting minor fever spikes. Usually in the evening.
I have no idea how many more radiation doses I am scheduled for. Maybe 8? I hope my blood levels go back toward normal and I hope I can continue with radiation to get this damn treatment done.
Finally, on the pain front, recently, I have had to take more breakthrough pain pills - a troubling sign.
