Day 7 Syndrome, Hospital Again and Again!

Day 7 after second chemotherapy - Woke up feeling sick and had stomach cramps, hadn’t slept very well at all. Rang the hospital and they said to come down. Felt very sick in the car, mum had to drive like a learner and I had to have the windows open!

Dr saw me at about 11.30 am; first thing he said was 'oh dear is that a vomit bowl!' We sat and had a chat about why I had come in, sore mouth (which was actually much better), sickness, stomach cramps and breathlessness. He did a thorough examination, and was very impressed with the size or not of my lump and said that my chest was absolutely clear. He said he thought the breathlessness was nothing to worry about but would check my saturation levels and pulse rate after on the ward, which were all ok. I’ve just got to accept that I am ill and am not going to be running any marathons. While I was there he said he was going to do chest x-ray just to check for bleomycin toxicity but stressed it would be clear, it would be very unlikely that after only one cycle of chemotherapy.


He stressed again how impressed he was with the size of the lump, he said it was comparable to his faster patient to date, in terms of lump reduction. He thought it would be very unlikely that the abdomen lumps and cancer in the liver wouldn’t be doing the same thing. He said I had good flexion in my back and he thought the twinges I am feeling were not the lymphoma flaring but being killed off. In terms of the abdominal pains he said he could do a CT scan but wanted to hold off because of radiation. He thought it could possibly be a reaction to the bleomycin and could take the bleomycin out if needed and if it was that causing the problems.


The nurse gave me my Clexane and came in for a little chat. She said she liked my headscarf, with everything else that had been going on I had forgotten it was the first time I was wearing a scarf out in public.

Got back at 2pm, just managed to get in the door before I throw up in the utility room sink, had felt sick in the car but not like I was actually going to be sick, and then when I got in the door, woosh, the dog was not impressed, with me retching I think he thought he had done something wrong!

Afterwards I went upstairs to bed and just tried to sleep to stop the sickness feeling. At 3.30 pm I was sick again, got a few moments of relief after I had been sick but then the feeling came back. Mum rang the hospital, and they said take an Ondansetron and try sips of fizzy water. She said to ring back if I kept vomiting.

At 6pm took some paracetamol as my stomach was very painful. Mum and I watched a film, well I had my eyes shut, dozing through most of it and trying to ignore the pain. Later on that evening I was still in a lot of pain, so we rang the hospital again. Dr said his gut feeling was, it is my whole system knitting together to fight chemo. If it got worse throughout the night, as in me not being able to move and real pain instead of discomfort then I must go to hospital. He reiterated that if it continued he could do a scan just to check there wasn’t any kind of blockage or twist anywhere. He had been doing a bit of internet searching and thought it could be Vinblastine type abdominal cramps , which is common in young people taking a sister drug of Vinblastine. He asked if I had any painkillers and I remember I had some Dihydrocodeine that I had been given on Boxing Day. He said to take one and it should work within an hour. Took one Dihydrocodeine and it made me feel spaced out and I went to sleep on the sofa practically straight away.


Woke up to not much improvement, felt too ill to go down to the surgery so mum gave me my Clexane injection! Spent the morning in bed. Had lunch, a gingerbread man and smoothie at 2pm, 2.30pm it all came back up! Mum rang the hospital back and Dr said he wanted me to go down to the hospital to stay in overnight for obs and to get the sickness and pain under control. Don’t know how I managed the car journey, had to stop several times. Stayed overnight, had 2 bags of fluid, and Lorazepam a ‘happy high drug’. Discharged the next morning.

Friday - woke up feeling not too bad, the pain seemed to have eased and I didn’t seem to feel sick. It didn’t last long though, I started to feel sick and the pain came back while I was having breakfast. My Dr wanted me to come in to hospital to have a CT scan and stay until Sunday. I wasn’t best pleased with that but have to admit I wasn’t feeling very good at all.

Had my CT scan, much the same as last time. A doctor came to take some bloods, and managed to cover me in blood, I looked like something out of Saw!

My Dr came to see me in the evening, he started off by saying he was glad that he had done a CT scan because it showed really good results. He said ball park figure, that the tumours had reduced by about 50%. He said my liver has reduced a lot in size. He said he thought the sickness and cramps were due to mass tumour kill as so much has been killed off. He said he wanted to keep me in until Sunday to get this under control, he was going to be over cautious this time as he had sent me home too early on Thursday.

Had an restless night, what with the man a few rooms down from me who had a monitor on all night and I could hear it bleeping,and they also came in to do my bloods at 2am, then at 6am to do my obs. After that I dozed until breakfast arrived. Spent the day whiling away the hours in hospital.

Sunday morning was actually asleep when the nurse came in at 6.45 am to do my obs and give me my medication, the pain seems to be at its least since Monday and no sickness, looking good.
Managed to eat my breakfast at 8.00am. Felt a bit sick during the morning, just when I thought I had got rid of it. Dr came to see me and said that as long as I was ok at lunchtime I could go home. Felt very upset that I was feeling sick again, just don’t know how I am going to cope with it for 6 months. Lunch came at 12.30pm and I suddenly felt very sick, couldn’t eat it and had to ask the nurse for some anti-sickness stuff. Laid on the bed and tried to concentrate on my breathing, eventually it went off. After a few hours we decided it was best for me to go home. The nurse had a little chat with me about ways to try and stop the sickness. Back home for a day before I have to go and have more chemo, oh the joys!

Spose constant sickness is a good way to loose weight!