I’ve hit turbulence with Taxotere. What a ride it has been.

Today is Day 10 of my fourth treatment cycle; I’m just starting to feel better. As I’ve been told, the bounce back time from each chemotherapy cycle increases with each additional treatment. An extra bounce back day has been added to this cycle.

During my Taxotere treatment, my nurse Crystal told me that this drug is prone to reducing white blood cell counts more dramatically than FEC. I believed that because I was already on white blood cell booster medication, I would get through this new cycle of chemo more easily as my blood counts are being boosted. Unfortunately, this would not be true.

On Sunday, I woke up “feeling off”. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I should have been able to recognize the symptoms of low white cell blood counts as I’ve had them before. Naively, I thought that my white cell counts would help me to stay healthy because I have been taking blood cell booster injections.

By Sunday evening I wasn’t getting better. When I went to brush my teeth, I found a white coating inside my mouth. I call to my oncologist’s office the next day resulted in a diagnosis of a throat infection called Thrush--a bacterial mouth infection caused by chemotherapy and low white blood cell counts (a side effect I wasn’t warned about). An anti-fungal prescription to clear the infection was issued.

I went to my Art Therapy class on Monday morning continuing to feel out of sorts with some joint and muscle pain, but pushed past the pain to be in class. By dinner hour that day, I was feeling sick and starting to spike a fever in addition to escalating joint and muscle pain.

With chemo, you’re told that if you are spiking a fever of 38° (after 5:00 p.m. or on weekends) you need to report immediately to the emergency room of your treatment hospital. I called the oncologist on call to check in, and was told that if the fever persisted at 38° for an hour or more then I should take a trip to the emergency ward.

My sister Jen, who is a registered nurse, stayed with me to monitor the fever. My fever bounced just above 38° or just below it for seven hours. Chills and shivers took turns with heat and sweat. It seemed that another infection was brewing and putting me in a dangerous position because of low white blood cell counts and an inability to fight the infection.

As I was already taking pain medication that had acetaminophen in it, when the fever climbed to 38.3° at 11:30 p.m. we made the decision to go to Emergency. It was a trip that I was dreading. Intuitively knew it would not be a short visit from past history with ER. I packed a care bag, which included my daily injections in the event that the visit to the emergency ward would be a long one.

The ER trip matched my dread and intuitive hunch on the length of stay. It was yet another 11-hour visit to emergency. With it came the usual cast of characters waiting to be seen, many appearing to have non-emergent conditions that a family doctor or walk in clinic could have assisted with.

When cancer patients present to emergency wards with a fever, the protocol is that they should be taken in as soon as possible. They are to be placed in a single bed treatment room to isolate them from other sick people in the emergency ward, because of their lowered immunity and inability to fight infection.

That didn’t happen until 7.5 hours later as all of the beds were full all night in the emergency ward. In the absence of an isolated room, I was issued a facemask to help block germs circulating among the patients who were in the waiting room with me. It was a long and tiring wait. I didn’t get any sleep overnight.

After my daily 7:00 a.m. injections, I was finally able to get into a solitary treatment room. In all, the assessment took nearly three hours by the emergency room physician (bouncing between patients) who first apologized for the long wait.

As it turns out, another infection seemed to be in the works somewhere in my body, but lab tests could not pinpoint where. Culture samples were also taken to confirm what kind of infection was building; the results are yet to come.

When a cancer patient has a fever, it is assumed that there is an infection brewing somewhere. No chances are taken to find out what kind of infection is bubbling. The ER physician consulted with my oncologist, resulting in me being immediately put on two types of potent broad-spectrum antibiotics to eliminate the infection.

Within 24 hours, I was put on three new medications. I’m beginning to feel like a walking pharmacy with chemo drugs, blood thinners, blood cell boosters, painkillers, an anti-fungal throat rinse, and anti-biotics all being housed in my body.

Taxotere has been a tough trip in this cancer fight. There are two more chemo treatments with this drug. I continue to persevere in my treatments with Strength, Courage, and Determination.