End Of Cycle 3~Start Of A Rough Week

Last Wednesday the 4th, was the last day of cycle 3 of chemo. We left the hospital excited that it meant there was only one cycle remaining. Cycle three continued to cause neuropathy in Jimmy's hands, it actually had gotten worse the 2nd week. He had more nausea and pain than he had previously, but all in all, he felt ok.

On Wednesday night, he started complaining of all over body pain that went from bad to worse quickly. He was eventually in so much pain that he was lying on his bed curled up in ball, and the Tylenol with Codeine was no longer handling the pain. I called the after hours number at our oncologists office and spoke to one of Dr Dole's partners, we shall call him Dr Idiot from here on out. (as I do in conversation) When he answered the phone, his greeting was "what do you need?", I started to tell him what was happening and he says "why is he coming to our office?"---WHAT? He didn't even bother to read his chart or educate himself on Jimmy's health. I was instant irritated but I let it go and continued telling him what was wrong.

A little background~Jimmy's doctor and nurses have said continuously and emphatically, if ever there is an issue, and the meds aren't helping, they will give him something else, please call because they need to know and Jimmy is not to sit home in pain or sick for any reason. Also, Dr Idiot has never met or treated Jimmy previously, nor had he ever met me.

After I finished telling him how much pain Jimmy was in and that the Tylenol wasn't working, he preceded to tell me to just keep giving him the Tylenol and alternate with Advil...and that was it. If Codeine isn't working, how the heck is advil going to work? I tried to express to him again how much pain he was in, the instructions from Dr Dole to call and they would prescribe something else...but Dr Idiot was too busy acting like I was a crack addict trying to get drugs for myself to care about anything I had to say. By the time I hung up the phone, I was so angry, I couldn't even express what had just happened.

After thinking about it for a few minutes, I got back on the phone and called the office again, I told them what happened, that I refused to speak to Dr Idiot again, that my son was in pain and someone needed to do something about it immediately. They connected me with the nurse manager who put a call in to Dr Dole, he arranged everything at the hospital for our arrival.

Once we got to the hospital, they rushed us back to a room so Jimmy wasn't exposed to germs in the waiting room, a doctor came right in and they started giving him morphine that was ordered by Dr Dole, and sent him home later with percocet. The next day Dr Dole's nurse called to check on Jimmy and stated that Dr Dole was handling the situation with Dr Idiot and that after all the pain and neuropathy caused by the Vancristin, he would probably need to lesson his dose. We will find out in a couple days what that means for his chemo protocol. Lesson to be learned: Don't think for a second that you are going to mess with my son, God has our back.

Saturday started a new range of issues--Jimmy started having weird pain in his chest, hiccups every time he ate or drank, a rash, throat pain, extreme fatigue, and nosebleeds several times that day. Sunday night he got a nose bleed that wouldn't stop, by the time we got to the hospital it had been bleeding 2 hrs. I suspected that his blood counts were low. I called the after hours number and yet again, Dr Idiot was on call, I had no choice but to speak with him. Did he surprise me with his brilliant, caring attitude towards helping my son? No, he proceeded to tell me to have Jimmy pinch his nose until it stopped ,(which he was already doing), conversation over, that is all he was going to say. Thankfully, I had educated myself on Jimmy's health, and I asked him if it meant that Jimmy's levels were low, to which he stated, "yeah, maybe". I tightly said thank you and hung up.

We arrived at the hospital and again they rushed us back to a room, posted a sign on the door stating to stay out unless it was one of his nurses or dr. The dr immediately said that it was good that we came in because otherwise we could have risked Jimmy's health. (no thanks to Dr Idiot) They took his blood and found that all of his counts were very low, especially his platelets and white blood cells. He wasn't quite at the point of transfusion, but he needs to be on semi-isolation. He can't do any activities that would cause injury, he can't be out among people unless it's necessary, limited people in our house and if someone needs to be here, they have to wear a surgical mask and swim in Purell. Once again, God provided protection for Jimmy and surrounded us at the hospital with nurses and a doctor who treated him wonderfully.

All in all, it has been a fairly rough week. I am praying and hoping that Jimmy's counts will start to elevate. He has his check-up Wednesday and will have his counts checked. Jimmy is the single bravest person I know, I can't even express how proud I am of him.