ROUND ONE

Well, Round One of chemotherapy was finished, the husband was released from hospital and about one week later he comes down with pneumonia. I had left him alone in the apartment for about four hours while I ran some errands. He had just started to get his appetite and his energy back, so I left him sleeping. When I got back he was up and dressed and hungry, so I gave him some food. Food at this point is small portions of very easy to eat stuff because everything tastes like cardboard and his throat is sore which are normal side effects of the chemo. He eats a little bit and commences to relax in his LazyBoyChair. Soon, I notice that he is not responding to me. His face has a blank looking stare to it. I feel his forehead and it seems warm. I call his oncologist who reminds me that my patient is a diabetic and that I should feed him some sugar. Duh, that had never occurred to me. He also said that if that didn't work I should call 911. Well it didn't work! I called and four very nice Fire Dept. members arrived as the Emergency response team. They took all his vitals and of course all came back incredibly normal. They asked him the usual questions such as what day is it and he answered okay. Occassionally, however, he appeared to just ignore them. They asked me if I wanted him to go to the hospital. I replied that I was not the medical professional but that this was not normal, so yes I wanted him to go to the hospital. They then called the ambulance. He was so weak he could not get out of his chair and it took two of them to get him up and on the gurney. The doctor called back again to see what was happening and said that he would see him there at emergency. I told the EMT this and they said that doctors don't do that, so I figured that I must have misunderstood the good doctor. Off they went. I went to my car, they had offered to give me a lift but I also wanted a way to get back home so I declined. Of course this huge fire engine was blocking me in so I had to wait on them to manuoever this behemoth out of the curved driveway. What was unbelieveable to me was that I actually got to the hospital emergency before the ambulance. I swear that I did not speed. I took the long route because it does not have as many signal burdoned intersections and has more freeway. When hubby finally arrived, about five minutes later, his temperature was up to 103! Blood tests showed that his little white cells were in fact nonexistant, another side effect of chemo. He got his own room even in the emergency department. Never saw that before. They worked to get his temperature down. This consisted of cold air and IV antibiotics. Low and behold, the most excellent doctor arrives. He lets me know that hubby will be readmitted to the hospital. They put him in a room with a sign on the door that one must wash before entering and upon leaving. So I guess he was contagious to boot! Five days later and I've got him back home again. Now he gets a week of rest before we enter Round Two. The good doctor related to us that he cannot give a full dose each time because of underlying kidney and liver problems that existed before this cancer. We are both looking for a TKO at about Round Four, with hubby coming out on top!