Weekend Getaway to Urgent Care

What would a Jaunt on the C-Train be without a side trip? This time that side trip was a weekend getaway to Urgent Care.

As you may recall, this round started out being the "3rd time's not the charm" round and continued to fit the bill. It all started during the non-chemo week. That's the week when the counts go down, the mouth sores appear, I go to bed at 7, headache, and other assorted side effects take their turn. It's generally do-able, I still go to work, I still feel ok-ish, I just need to take it easy. This third round, I left work early on Thursday and planned to work at home on Friday. By Friday I was really feeling crappy. I kept having to lie down all day. And, I kept taking my temperature all day but had no fever at the critical level - which, by the way is 100.5.

I took a nap, I woke up, I took my temperature - 101.1. Yikes! What happened? I tried to reduce it - I drank ice water, put my hands and feet in cold water, I moistened my skin all over with cool water. Nope, still 101.1. So, I called the Onc on call and headed to Urgent Care. When I got there I spied a friend of mine from my "old life" - yeah, that wine tasting/wine party life - who is also an Urgent Care Doctor! I was really happy to learn that he would be MY UC Dr and I knew I would be in good hands! He ran a lot of tests and took a look at my lymph node surgical site which had become swollen and red. He used a marker to outline the redness and we would use that "map" as a guide to see if the infection would shrink from the lines or start to "color outside the lines" ( like we all did as kids!) in response to the antibiotics. I was given IV ani-biotics, released and invited to come back Saturday evening for a continuation of the weekend getaway.

Saturday, I my temperature oscillated between fever and no fever but by the time I got back to Urgent Care it was, again, 101.1. And, that darned infection had the mind of a 4 year old. It had retreated in the upper portion but had very clearly "colored outside the lines" in the lower portion and had grown in total size. This meant more IV antibiotics and some phlebotomy adventures that resulted in some colorful reminders of the evening. At this point the UC Dr ( not my friend, this time) recommended an oral antibiotic for Sunday that had a different spectrum of bacteria in its target. At least I didn't have to go back to UC on Sunday! And it did seem to have a slow effect. The map didn't radically change and my temp fluctuations started to favor the non-fever side more often. Thus my weekend getaway to UC!