Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucille
Suggestions:
Put some ice cubes and water in a bowl, then get a washcloth and dip it in and wipe her forehead and arms and etc. The cool may or may not help, but seeing you gently helping will help.
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As per the above post, I asked her that, but she declined. "No, I will be OK".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucille
Go to the store and buy some of the best brand of ice cream they carry, and some Snickers bars. And some flowers. Bring her a tray with a scoop of ice cream in a bowl, a frozen Snicker's bar, and a flower in a little vase and tell her that you think she should cool down from the inside out. Just the fussing over her will help.
Be creative with stuff like this. All that your medical team is doing is very worth while, but you can certainly brighten the aches and pains and miseries that may come with the treatments by making creative little bright spots in her day.
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Wouldn't fly with Connie. She used to like getting flowers, but got distressed at just watching them wilt and die. People tried sending her live plants, but then that was something else she needed to take care of. Right now she has about 50 small pumelo citrus tree seedlings that she started several months ago that are likely going to die. I am trying to keep them watered, but they really need to be transplanted into larger pots, and I just can't find the time to do that with everything else going on. She told me to give up on them weeks ago, but I tried....
Connie isn't much into sweets trying to avoid processed sugars. She has been pretty fanatical about a healthy diet. And she found that she has allergy sensitivity to diary and wheat, plus some problems with her thyroid, meaning she tries to avoid gluten whenever possible.
So really I am just reduced to asking her frequently, "Is there anything I can do for you or get you?" Knowing I will get a "No, thank you" in response.
As an update, I took Connie to the ER yesterday evening. Kind of a conflict between doctors, it seems. On Monday her oncologist (who is still Dr. Ellison, apparently) suggested that Connie go to her primary care physician about her cough feeling it is an upper respiratory infection. Just like she recommended last week. Here PCP didn't get back to her until Tuesday, and felt the symptoms Connie was having were side effects to the Zarxio shot she got on Thursday. Same symptoms Connie had last week after having that same shot that Thursday.
But Dr. Ellison seemed emphatic about treating it seriously, and suggested either going to Urgent Care or the Emergency Room. Still not certain why Dr. Ellison was still Connie's oncologist after we had requested a switch, but apparently this was the case, and really not the time to try to press for a reason. So we went to the ER. Didn't go to the one at the hospital this time, but instead went to a closer one which seems to be more of a combination of emergency room and urgent care facility related to the hospital.
So we were there for several hours while they checked Connie out. Swabs all showed negative. Chest X-ray showed small amounts of fluid in both lungs, but the doctor didn't feel it was anything to worry about or warranted any medications. She also felt like it was likely side effects of Zarxio.
Meanwhile Dr. Ellison back pedaled on saying she warned that Zarxio could give flu-like symptoms, saying she meant more of the aches and pains variety of symptoms. Looking on line plainly shows cough and other symptoms most people would consider as being "flu like" as side effects of that shot, so not sure what is going on here.
So this morning I drove Connie to the Florida Cancer Specialists center, expecting to have a meeting with Dr. Ellison, then her having blood work done. If the blood work showed OK, then Connie would be getting another chemo infusion treatment, but again just the single drug this time.
We were told by the nurse who took Connie's vitals that she wouldn't be getting the chemo treatment today. This had Connie pretty worried, because she was afraid that we had rocked the boat so much trying to change oncologists that she was just going to be discharged by the facility. Basically washing their hands of us. I have to admit I was concerned about that too, and honestly don't know what I would have done had they tried pulling something like that. I might have been on here soliciting bail money from you all.
But the meeting with Dr. Ellison actually seemed really positive. Maybe our requesting a change of oncologists made an impression on her that perhaps her treatment of Connie wasn't what we had hoped it would be, and she is willing to make the effort to meet her needs. That is what we are hoping, anyway. As for the chemo treatment, she was giving Connie off this week, just in case she did have a respiratory infection. She didn't want to knock back Connie's immune system if that was the case. She said she recently lost a patient to a respiratory infection that overwhelmed the patient before anything could be done, and she REALLY didn't want a repeat of that.
So Connie has off this week for both the chemo treatment and another Zarxio shot following. Since Connie had another bout of someone failing to put an IV in one arm and another person succeeding in the other arm at the ER yesterday evening, I am sure she has had enough poking holes in her arms anyway. And I think Connie was actually relieved about the decision. Give her a chance to recuperate for a week before starting back in with the chemicals being pumped into her system.