On Monday Feb 27, I went to the clinic for a routine appointment where I get my labs checked, and if I need anything like a blood transfusion I just get it done there. So that day I needed a platelet transfusion which is totally not out of the ordinary. I've received them several times before, no big deal.
Now, what could happen is that patients can have an allergic reaction to these transfusions. Not to say they are allergic to the platelets and can't ever get them, but for some reason there's something about that specific bag that can cause a reaction. That is my understanding at least. I never really paid attention to all that because I never needed to. Anyway! I got the bag and shortly after started to have some small groups of hives, and then a little bit of the nose drippies and the tired eye feeling you get with allergies. On top of all this I also got a fever, which can also be an allergic reaction to a transfusion.
Let me take a quick pause right here so that I may explain the whole fever and immunocompromised body here. While in this state of a compromised immune system, patients are encouraged to take their temperature throughout the day. Rule of thumb is at least when you take your medication. What we, the patients, are looking for (or not looking for), is a temperature of 100.4 degrees. When that happens, we call the clinic and then head over to the ER so that we can get checked out because it can be a sign of an infection.
Ok, back to the clinic...
I had the hives, and the nose and eye issues, and then the fever. All of what was aligning with the run of the mil allergic reaction. But because of the fever alone, I had to be admitted. And because of the fever alone I was having vials filled with blood so they could use them to grow cultures to see if there were any infections. Before we were transported to the ER, the nurse who was taking care of me mentioned that she didn't think the fever was related to the allergic reaction because my temp was kinda high before everything started, though not a fever. And she was sooooooo right!
I got admitted and then ran a fever on and off, but mostly on for 48 hours. Most of the time I felt like I didn't have one so it wasn't a state of me feeling off or anything. I was just "relaxing" while I was just waiting for the fever to break and then I could see if there were any cultures so that I could go home,
So now with the cultures, they are looking for an infection my body may have picked up. That way the doctors can ID the damn thing, and then give me the right drugs to get rid of it. The plan was that the cultures would be back in 72 hours. So then I could go home around Thursday/Friday. Then with the timing and all, I was due for another bone marrow biopsy...so then my doctor said that since I was there they should just keep me til Monday so I could do the biopsy out of convenience. Which, I do hate being in the hospital, but it really is more convenient getting an appointment set up as an in patient than as outpatient.
So that Monday (3/6) is rolling around, nothing is still coming up on the cultures which is good, but bad because additional testing has to be done. So, they drew blood on Friday (3/3) for another test that I will have to get the name of, because I can't remember it right now, but it had to be sent off to CA and then the results wouldn't be back until Wednesday (3/8). So then we were looking at a busting out time of Wednesday. So by Tuesday the results came back and from CA as well as all the additional testing such as CT scans and sonograms for blood clots and the results showed that I had a bacterial infection from Klebsiella. The CT scans showed what I thought were two ingrown hairs as the infection site.
You might be thinking how I could possible do that. Well, my hair has been coming in, and they really did look like two in grown hairs. during the hospital stay the infection reached it's peak and they were clearly not two in grown hairs, but things have settled and I am getting back to normal.
My biopsy results show that I'm still in remission! Which is a huge relief. I also did a lumbar puncture to check if there was any cancer in the spinal fluid, which sometimes happens with AML, and that came back clean...so all good news.
With all that said, it is now 3/10, and I have no idea when they will release me back into the wild. they are still waiting for the infection to clear up some more, and waiting for my counts to come back up so I'm not tooootally vulnerable.
I miss my little one very much, but I have to keep in mind that I'm playing the long game for him and my husband, so staying positive and thankful that I get to video chat him every day and that he can come visit me...and also thankful that my husband stays here with me every day. I keep reminding him that I don't mind if he goes home to sleep in a real be but St. Stefan has refused to leave me alone.
That's what I got today for my "quick" hospital visit...stay awesome on the outside everyone!
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