back home

So now I can elaborate, assuming I can remember everything that was said to me in the last three days... it's been quite a lot. One possibility is "atypical pneumonia" (atypical "can be caused by viruses, fungi, bacteria, or chemicals (such as when stomach contents are inhaled into the lungs)"). So, they gave me antibiotics intravenously one night, and by morn' my temp was lower, and perfectly normal all day Tuesday and Wednesday. Hence that's the most likely cause.

BUT! since I was there anyway (and scheduled for chemo Wednesday), they went ahead and tested for the bleomycin toxicity as well. "Bleo" is the B part of the ABVD quartet of drugs I get every other week for chemotherapy. One of the *possible* side effects (each drug has a laundry list of "possible" effects) is lung damage -- to quote the original document I got back in December, "permanent scarring of the lungs may occur. Report any cough or shortness of breath to your doctor immediately."

I haven't had cough or shortness of breath, but there is some sort of "thing" that causes me to gag/cough when I take in a deep breath, e.g. to yawn or blow my nose (or the 2305983 times I had to take a deep breath for the 103598 different doctors I've seen in the past 3 days). So some sort of obstruction is definitely there. That, and the CT Scan I had Tuesday showing something, and the possibility of bleo tox are the reason for the bronchoscopy I had today. That's the thing where they drugged me up with morphine and cousin of valium and stuck a fiber optic camera up through my nose and down into my lungs to see whazzup. They also took a tissue sample while rooting around in there. Once they said "it'll go into effect in less than a minute," things went blurry and I don't remember a thing.

They sent me home with a prescription for an antibiotic to continue fighting the pneumonia-or-some-type-of-infection route, as well as prednisone for, um, well all that lung stuff prednisone does. I'll see my regular oncologist next week for more details on how we're going to proceed. I have to go back to the Clinic today for a lung test (I think like the one I had back in December, but not sure).

All this means I didn't have my scheduled chemo Wednesday -- it's now pushed back a week, as well as all subsequent sessions. That means I won't be having it the Wednesday before we trek up to Toronto! So that's a silver lining.

In other news, whilst I was in the hospital with an IV in my arm, my car at home was hit. I normally park on the street since my parents both have cars in the driveway and it just makes things easier. Never mind that there were plenty of other cars parked on the street for this idiot to hit, no no, he had to ram mine. It almost looks more like someone *swerved* into it, as it's hit more from the side than the back. The police basically told my dad "well if we find a car with damage like this on the front right side..." blah blah blah. They didn't even want to take the leftbehind broken pieces of the other car. In any case, we just recently got rid of the insurance coverage for this type of collision, since the deductible would be half the value of the car anyway. So I guess we'll be getting an estimate on the repair... new car time?

OK, I think that's everything. :)

Updated to add: I would be remiss in not thanking everyone who called and visited and e-mailed and prayed and sent mojo and all that good stuff. My parents, of course, for driving me to and from the Clinic at all hours, and my brother and his girlfriend for the book of crossword puzzles that kept me busy in-between tests and doctors (I never even got around to reading the books I brought). Not to mention the little stuffed animal hound they brought me. :D