Yesterday I had chemotherapy. It was only 2 or 3 hours of infusion. Accompanied by Cliff, I sat being pumped full of toxins. I was having a sore throat but it was manageable, I asked the nurse to call in some numbing mouth wash. The time went by quick. Soon after I left Osler with Boh headed for Palm Bay to visit my sister, my throat pain began to increase. I asked him to stop at the pharmacy for what I thought would be a quick easy prescription pick up. It was not quick or easy. I was told it would take 40 minutes to fill. In this time I began to shake uncontrollably for the agonizing pain in my throat was increasingly horrendous. It felt as if I had shards of glass lodged in my throat. My eyes swelled with tears and my face was red from it. We headed back to Osler and I informed the nurse of the ordeal and she insisted that it was "just a side effect" and instructed me to gargle salt water and said that I would just have to "suffer through it".
We made it to Palm Bay and the pain eventually subdued. Boh got to meet my sister and we played the guitar a bit, chatted, then left. In the middle of the night I woke up in a sweat with a 101.9 fever and my throat was still quite sore. I had to call the emergency on call physician line and was able to be connected to the Doctor directly by some stroke of luck. He asked that I come in a few hours later. By the time I came in my fever was gone. The doctor told me I wasn't drinking enough water. The nurse had instructed me to drink only half of what the Doctor was now telling me I should have been drinking. He took blood and urine samples, then had me given a liter of fluids by IV. I felt so much better after the fluids were given. this tells me that dehydration is probably the culprit. He prescribed me antibiotics just to be sure there is no infection.
Click Play below to see a video of the life-giving fluids being drained from my body!
I'm glad the issue was addressed, but it should have been addressed much much sooner. I went to them with a severe problem and the advice I was given was to "suffer through it". A normal sore throat is uncomfortable, a normal sore throat does not make you turn red, shake uncontrollably, and cry. That was ridiculous. I should have been given fluids regardless with a medication that severely dehydrates and from now on I will insist that they do so with every dose of that stuff. I also plan to drink twice as much water from now on.
We made it to Palm Bay and the pain eventually subdued. Boh got to meet my sister and we played the guitar a bit, chatted, then left. In the middle of the night I woke up in a sweat with a 101.9 fever and my throat was still quite sore. I had to call the emergency on call physician line and was able to be connected to the Doctor directly by some stroke of luck. He asked that I come in a few hours later. By the time I came in my fever was gone. The doctor told me I wasn't drinking enough water. The nurse had instructed me to drink only half of what the Doctor was now telling me I should have been drinking. He took blood and urine samples, then had me given a liter of fluids by IV. I felt so much better after the fluids were given. this tells me that dehydration is probably the culprit. He prescribed me antibiotics just to be sure there is no infection.
Click Play below to see a video of the life-giving fluids being drained from my body!
I'm glad the issue was addressed, but it should have been addressed much much sooner. I went to them with a severe problem and the advice I was given was to "suffer through it". A normal sore throat is uncomfortable, a normal sore throat does not make you turn red, shake uncontrollably, and cry. That was ridiculous. I should have been given fluids regardless with a medication that severely dehydrates and from now on I will insist that they do so with every dose of that stuff. I also plan to drink twice as much water from now on.
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