Do I have to Keep Learning about Medicine?

Tuesday Feb 2. Started out so well, I had a phone call from the hernia surgeons office, they told me they could book me in for a March appointment, I chose the 10th. That was pretty exciting yes it was. I had caused it by lifting a heavy suitcase returning home from a holiday 2019 visit with my in-laws. The situation came about after the previous 9 months, of surgeries, chemo, nausea and eating only whole plant foods, which caused me to loose 30 pounds. This meant not only fat but a whole lotta muscle loss as well. I was hoping to have the hernia repair at the same time as my colostomy reversal which happened in July 2020. The procedure was started late and the reversal took a bit too long so the hernia repair was cancelled. I enjoyed my summer and began climbing once I had recovered from the surgery. I was climbing strong and loved every minute my had on rock. Climbing with the hernia was a bit hit and miss, some days were fine and others I had to ‘adjust” my intestines and let them slither back through the abdominal muscles and into my abdomen, where sometime between seconds and minutes the bulge would reappear and remind me that I cannot step up high with my left leg. Around the house and shop I limit my lifting to around 40 pounds, which may sound like a lot but its not if you live outside, most things are heavy, rocks, trees, wheelbarrows of dirt, and steel is almost 500 pounds per square foot. Did I tell you I prefer to be outside?

That was the history of how the hernia appeared. Now, back to last week. I was excited about the future, we had a date for surgery, it also meant chemo was done for now and I could become stronger and build immunity and look at chemo again in a few months. As I prepared for bed I was reminded of how I had a bit of chest pain the previous night which kept me up a bit. But I remembered it was more comfortable if I laid on my left side, so that I did. Woke up with a sore left shoulder thats for sure but was able to sleep ok. The pain which was kinda behind the lower couple of ribs, the junction of lungs, diaphragm, and intestines kept with me as I did my morning routine. Heather became concerned and called the covid hotline, talking to them we ruled that out and they suggested we call my oncologist nurse who deals with chemo side-effects. She said it did not sound like a drug thing, so Heather drove me to emergency at around 11. My pain then was about a 3, the doctor quizzed, poked prodded and measured many things, he did bloodwork, an x-ray and even a CT scan. The bloodwork was ok, meaning a DVT was not detected, the x-ray showed some shadowing which looked like pre-pnemonia. The CT confirmation got sent to the dr office and not emergency which means I missed the scan that afternoon. But we organized a ct for Friday. I was happy with that and went to bed. I had gone to sleep on my good side but woke up a half hour later in serious respiratory destress. It did not alleviate when standing, sitting or anything else. After ten minutes of attempts to slow my breathing I was getting worried and we said goodbye the kids and Heather sped me toward town.

To get to Pemberton from our house requires one to drive for 16 km with out cellular service, no contact to the outside world for 10 minutes, normally its a nice quiet drive with no urge to check your phone, but now we were on our own with no way to call an ambulance, we could have stayed home and called one but how long would that take? I just knew I need to keep breathing. When we arrived in cell service heather called the clinic to make sure someone would be there, the time was about 10:30 pm and our clinic is not open during the night. The nurse arrived the same minute as we did and the Dr came in less then 5. First thing they did was vitals, and my blood pressure was high, my pulse was also high but the interesting thing here was my O2 saturation level, it was at 97 which is normal and that made me feel so much better mentally. I still was panting and couldn’t string together more than a couple of words at a time. Then they inserted an IV and gave me morphine another minute later I was breathing better and starting to relax. The x-ray tech was called in and she bounced in incredibly quickly and re-did my chest x-ray which showed the same slight shadowing. Mostly due to my difficulty breathing they called for an ambulance to transfer me to Lions Gate Hospital, just before 2am the ambulance arrived and scooted me down the (bumpy) road.

My vitals, pain and my comfort remained stable for the trip and for the visit in the hospital. The Dr. there ordered a CT scan and did an ultrasound which mostly showed the two gallstones I have. The CT that happened at 6am showed what we were looking for, bilateral segmented pulmonary emboli, AKA PE. They figure the clot came from my calf which was very slightly sore. As I’ve researched now, having cancer with metastases raises the likelihood have having a blood clot. Certain types of chemo drugs like (Avastin) I’m on also raise the potential of a clot. The treatment for a PE is for me to be on blood thinners, in the doctors words I should be on them forever, or at least as long as I’m on Chemo. Doctors tend to be pessimistic. (but not the ones I love) Those ones at least humor my optimism. By 5 PM the pain was managed by oral narcotics and I was sent home. It seemed like boot out to the word that I was not ready for. We decided to stay in a hotel that night incase something went wrong, which nothing did. We continued home on Friday. Lots of sleep, the container of opiates and now on Monday afternoon I am able to breath about 70% of my lung capacity and feel almost no pain.

Waiting to hear from the oncolocigst, hospital dr and hernia surgeon about what to do next. For now, I’m not going to chemo this week and hope to keep healing and be back to “normal” in a week. After that I will be better than normal and working toward the “new normal” All the quotes because normal is so twisted for me now with this double punch of pandemic and cancer. I pray you have only one of these things to deal with, and soon, both be gone. Please!