Why?
Because I came down with pneumonia this past Monday. I wasn't feeling very well in the morning, pretty sluggish and had a dry cough that kind of persisted through the day. In the evening I took my temperature (as you should do every night on ABVD) and I hit 100.7F. As your doctor should have told you, when you take your temp every night if you hit 100.5F you have to call the doctor no matter what time it is. As it's a sign of infection- and because of a compromised immune system, you're not going to be very well suited to fight it, especially if you have low white blood cell counts.
So I called my doctor, and interrupted his dinner I'm guessing- and was given the instructions to take Tylenol to lower my fever, and if my fever kept going up in temp- to just go straight to the emergency room. He also told me to call in the next morning on Tuesday with how I was feeling, and go from there. My temp Monday night after Tylenol was way down to 98.6F.
Tuesday morning came around... and I felt pretty shitty in the morning, hot and fatigued I took my temp, and it was 101.3F. Called in to my doctor and got "you should come in right now."
So I spent all morning and half of the afternoon at the hospital on Tuesday. I had a CBC, 2 blood cultures, a couple of swabs, a few chest x-rays, and had my oxygen levels checked by trotting through the office wearing a facemask (so I don't get other patients sick) for a few laps with the head nurse holding the device I was hooked up to trying to keep up with my speed walking must have been pretty entertaining for the other nurses and patients to watch (I think the nurse was more winded than I was). My white blood cell counts are very good and high (Though they have been through all of my treatment), my oxygen levels were very good, and my blood cultures and x-rays... said I had pneumonia. However I apparently hadn't had it for very long, or because my white cell counts are super high- it just took it awhile to pop up with symptoms to knock me on my ass.
So my doctor prescribed me some antibiotics, as he's pretty sure given my symptoms I have the garden variety bacterial pneumonia. So I should start to feel better in 2-3 days, and should be totally fine in about 6 days. So I have to call to check in tomorrow Thursday with how I'm doing- which is pretty good as of Wednesday today. My fever is down and my cough is subsiding, but mainly I have a lot of energy and don't feel like crap. My breathing is a bit shallow still, and I can't do anything strenuous. My body temp is well regulated now, instead of going haywire with hot flashes and chills. Not bad for only 1 1/2 days of antibiotics, and I'm feeling much better already.
Because of my pneumonia though- I had to have my last treatment pushed back 1 week. My doctor could tell I wasn't very thrilled by that news. This is how that conversation went down:
Doctor: He's pretty upset about having his treatment pushed back a week.
Me: Yeah- it's not what I wanted exactly.
Head Nurse: Well, do you know what would happen to you if you did have treatment while having pneumonia?
Me: ...yes.
Head Nurse: (laughs) Well, there you go.
Having Pneumonia and a treatment of ABVD would be very bad, especially on my lungs. So I'll have to wait.
Wendy took pretty good care of me when I was down for 2 days. She's making a special Valentine's day dinner. I won't be all chemo drugged out luckily... just you know, lightly pneumonia'ed out instead.
Oh, I keep forgetting to put up a picture of a damn cat. So here you go. This was Miles my cat when I first got him about 4 1/2 years ago, I think he was about 12-14 weeks old. He was pretty awkward looking:
Great read as usual, your attitude is inspirational. Can't imagine being at the end then getting that surprise. Glad you're doing a little better.
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