FOLFIRI rounds 3, 4 and 5

It's clearly been a while since I have blogged as I have just realised that I have had three rounds of chemo since my last update.

Round 3 was in late November and like round 2, I ended up in hospital with a neutropenic fever. I was admitted once more and given broad spectrum IV antibiotics and fluids, however after 3 days I still had a fever (which at its peak reached 39.5 deg) which tended to come on during the afternoon, every afternoon, and was accompanied by a wicked headache. After three days on the antibiotics and no improvement, the antibiotics were stopped. The doctors tested a few theories to try and locate the source of infection but to no avail. At this stage, from my point of view, the worst part of all was that it was my daughter's 4th birthday the next day and it was looking like I was not going to be able to get out of hospital to spend the day with her. I was gutted.

The good news is that once I told my medical team why I was so upset, they decided to let me out for the day so I could at least go to her birthday party and spend some of the day with her. It was then very odd (after being out for most of the day and feeling ok) to have to head back in that evening and sleep in hospital rather than sleeping in my own bed.

Two days later and still no improvement they sent me for a CT scan of my chest, abdomen & pelvis (my usual set) as well as a head CT. The results came back pretty quickly and showed that my head was clear (phew), my liver mets were slightly smaller than in my previous CT and there was no new disease. Great news. The other thing that showed up was that a little pool of fluid that had been there since I had my bowel surgery in Nov 2012 had increased in volume and it was thought that was the probable source of infection. I was put on a different set of IV antibiotics and over the next few days slowly started coming right. After 8 long days and nights in hospital, I was finally sent home. 

Round 4 was delayed a week due to the hospital admission, so it didn't happen until 18th Dec. In an attempt to prevent yet another hospitalisation I was put on long term prophylactic antibiotics and sent home with a jab of GCSF (a growth hormone that stimulates the bone marrow to produce more white cells) to give myself the day after chemo. The good news is that it did the trick, and I managed to stay out of hospital.

The other good news was that I got a three week break over Christmas/New Year rather than the usual two weeks (partly due to stat days and partly due to us going away for a few days). Round 5 was on 8th Jan and once again with the help of prophylactic antibiotics and self-administered jabs of GCSF I have remained in the comfort of my own home.

Round 6 of 8 is due next week, and here's hoping for another drama-free round.