*Backdated Post*
*Some content copied from Facebook Posts*
On the night of August 10th I fell asleep on the couch and when I woke up the right side of my face was a little sore. I chalked it up to sleeping funny and went up to bed. Then I woke up around 7am and my eye was red and swollen and my whole half of my face hurt. I knew I was neutropenic so I had to go to the ER. Alan had stayed up late and had barely gotten to sleep so I made the call to just drive myself to the ER at Beaumont. This ended up being a huge mistake as Beaumont turned out to be wildly I'll equipped to handle my issues.
I spiked a fever while in the ER so they started antibiotics and admitted me. I expressed my desire to be transferred to UofM as soon as possible. Which turned out to be almost 5 days later because UofM was at full capacity. Below are some Facebook updates that I posted during the whole ordeal.
Aug 13:
UPDATE on Meghan from Alan:
After two and a half days on the strongest IV antibiotics possible, Meghan's eye continues to show no improvement and the swelling has spread down her face and neck. Today, they called in a surgeon from Ear, Nose, and Throat who came into the hospital from home to see Meghan as an emergency consultation. They think there is a chance she might have acute invasive fungal sinusitis. He thinks it is a low chance (10 to 15 percent), but if she does have it, it is a very aggressive disease that can result in death quickly. They are going to surgery to perform an operation to open her maxillary sinus to check for the fungal infection. The doctor says the surgery is relatively low risk but for Meghan it is higher risk because of her low blood counts (low platelets, low white blood cells). The doctor thinks this is an emergency situation and wants to operate tonight as it could spread more by tomorrow morning. She thanks everyone for their thoughts and comments. I have been reading her the posts.
Aug 16:
UPDATE from Alan: After 5 days waiting to be transferred to Michigan, it finally happened at 1:00AM this morning. She met with oncology, hematology, opthamology, infectious disease, and ENT doctors as soon as she arrived here. They ran another CT scan on her head and found an abcess behind her right eye. She is about to go in for a second surgery to have the abcess drained and they are also going back into the sinuses for more scraping and clearing.
Aug 17:
After 5 long days at Beaumont, yesterday I arrived at UofM around 2am with:
- 2 painful and inconveniently placed IV lines for the purpose of running 3 different antibiotocs
- a face/eye that was increasing in size and redness every day with a lot of heat radiating from it
- still spiking temperatures over 100 At least once a day
Within less than 10 hours from then I was seen or examined by doctors from 4 different services (hematology, ENT, Opthamology, Infectious disease), given a repeat CT, and scheduled for surgery. Another 24 hours and I now have:
- my port accessed with no peripheral IV lines
- Down to only one IV antibiotic (and not even one of the 3 I was on)
- An eye abscess drained and a sinus cavity properly cleaned out
- A face/eye that is 50%+ less swollen and barely warm
- A temperature that has stayed under 99 at every check
- A plan of action leading up to and for after discharge
- taken a shower and had a full meal for the first time in a full week
I've mentioned it before but one of my biggest fears is dying from infection and complications, which is actually a common cause of death for people with cancer. I have a lot of anxiety every time I think about coming up on my time of neutropenia. Will I spike a fever? Will it be an infection? Will I develop antibiotic resistances that make future infections harder to treat?
My other big fear, medically, is of surgery, or more so general anesthesia. I am very paranoid of going in for surgery and not coming back.
So this week I had to face both of these fears multiple times. While also being fairly isolated because I couldn't even use my phone because of the IV placement. And it was hard.
Alan has been an absolute champ, sleeping (if you could call it that) in the most uncomfortable of spots and staying up close to 24 hours more than once just to make sure I wasn't alone. Packing us supplies and treats, making me eat and drink when I don't want to, double cleaning everything because he doesn't trust the hospital.
I really can't thank everyone enough for the comments you've left on the updates Alan posted for me while I couldn't bend my arms. From the bottom of my heart, really and truly. They really helped to ease my anxiety and fears and bring me some joy during this very difficult week. I love you all! 💓💓💓
More updates to come, and I'm sure I'll eventually combine all of this into one extremely long blog post.
