When I woke up, I felt great! No chemo brain, no dizziness, no nausea. Alex left today, but he offered to come with me to have my off-week blood testing down in Mason, OH before his flight. I figured it would take, at most, 30 minutes since all we needed to do was draw blood to check my white blood count and platelets, etc.
As we drove to the office, I began to feel a little light-headed, but sunglasses helped at first. Then it became more noticeable once I got into the doctor's office. When the nurse took me back, she asked how I was doing and I mentioned that I was a little dizzy. She checked my blood pressure and it was pretty low: 94/60. She suggested I could be a little dehydrated and they offered to give me IV fluids to rehydrate me once they got blood drawn from my port.
Right away, I noticed it was cold in the room, so I asked for a warm blanket. Then a few minutes later, I asked for another warm blanket because my arms and shoulders were too cold. Then when I moved my head off the chair, I knew my dizziness was way out of control. I almost felt like I could faint, so I told the nurse that I was really dizzy. She suggested laying my chair back to help, since the IV was working to help. I agreed and laid back. Unfortunately, I just kept feeling colder and colder and was shaking, so I asked Alex to get me more warm blankets. I tried calming down and allow the warm blankets to warm me, but I realized I was uncontrollably shaking. All I kept thinking was how cold I was and I wondered if the shaking would stop.
The next thing I knew, Alex must have gotten the nurses and showed them how badly my body was shaking and I heard them ask me how I felt. I just said I was cold and couldn't stop shaking. They immediately took me off the IV drip and got the Nurse Practitioner. I don't think I even opened my eyes but heard her say that she did not think it was a seizure, but something was definitely wrong and she said she would get me a muscle relaxer to help. Within a few minutes of going off the IV, my body stopped shaking and I felt better, but they gave me the drug anyway. It totally knocked me out for an hour while they gave me the rest of the IV fluids. When I woke up, I felt fine. They said it could have been that my electrolytes were off or that maybe the IV fluids were too cold. I don't know what it was, but I knew I felt totally fine when all was said and done. Looking back on it, the amount of shaking was more like convulsing, yet I just laid there hoping to get it under control. The nurse told me afterward that she had never seen anything like it. "Whew! Glad to know I came out of that and it wasn't anything more serious!"
We went home, Alex left for the airport, and I napped off and on but felt normal in my brain today for the first time since before Chemo.
Tonight a neighbor brought me some beautiful flowers and a card and I got to talk to friends on the phone before heading to bed. It makes me feel so special to hear some friends tell me that they check to see if I blogged all the time and can't wait to read the next entry. I don't know that what I write is THAT interesting, but I am thankful that I have people who think about me and pray for me daily as they learn what a day in the life of chemo looks like. Can't wait to visit with you soon, Holly B!
As for my hair...it's still on my head and I'm sure it's falling out, but thankfully because it's so short, I'm not noticing it much. However, if I rub my head, it kind of hurts and feels warm. I did get to wear one of my pretty purple turbans today, which I really love, Marisa Sobb!
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