Today is May 2nd. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve written, and there’s certainly a lot to write about.

Last I wrote was that I had just had 75 cc injected into my expander and was expecting to have 55 cc and 50 cc during the next two visits to get the expansion over with. On the following week I went in and hoped to receive 55 cc. The doc had to stop after 35 because I was in so much pain. I had never pain within the breast normally until later in the evening, aside from the needles. Today was much different. It hurt from the get go.

My kids and sister came over the following Sunday to celebrate Easter. I was so cold and couldn’t get warm all day long, no matter what I did. On Monday, I woke up and was in more pain than I was on the evening of my bilateral mastectomy. Both sides hurt so bad that I couldn’t roll over to get out of bed or get up off the couch. I was in so much pain that I even resorted to taking a pain pill, which I absolutely hate. I only took it that one time because although it made me sleep, I had nightmares the entire time I was out. The only thing I could attribute the pain to was that I had gone back to work fulltime the previous week and thought I had over done it. And I was also starting to stretch because I didn’t have much range of motion in either of my arms since the latest surgery on March 4th. I also had a low-grade fever.

On Tuesday, the pain got a bit better but I still had the fever. Wednesday was a little better, and by Thursday, March 31st, I felt much better and had no fever at all. I had an appointment to see Dr. Chatson, for another fill-up that day. I was dreading this so much, but when I got there, after telling him about the pain and the fever, he said I had an infection in both breasts and actually removed some saline from both sides. I was heart broken because this is setting me back once again. He also put me on 2000 mg per day of an antibiotic and scheduled to see me the following Thursday. I didn’t feel sick at this point, just tired.

I saw Dr. Chatson again on April 7th, and he felt that although the infection hadn’t gotten worst, he felt that we should have seen much more of an improvement than what was visible. He suggested I either continue on the antibiotic and seeing him again on the following Tuesday, or going to the hospital to have a pick-line IV put into my arm and start the antibiotics intravenously. Antibiotics seem to have a much better effect if they are injected directly into the blood system. I would have to inject the antibiotic into my IV three times a day. Guess what I chose? Chicken-Little opted for the easy route and said that I’d rather continue on the oral antibiotics, firstly because I didn’t feel I could handle injecting myself, and secondly, John and I were scheduled to fly out on vacation to Florida for 15 days, and the IV would have to be in for a minimum of 7-days, which would postpone my trip. I felt that I’d take the chance of staying on the orals and hopefully it would show signs of getting better by Tuesday. The doc said he’d keep me on the meds the entire time I was away if they were working.

The following day, Friday, I woke up and decided that I had made the wrong decision and that I should have the IV started and get the infection under control as soon as possible. I could postpone my trip a week, so long as I was in Florida by April 22nd to celebrate my parents 50th Anniversary with them. I called Dr. Chatson’s office and spoke with one of his nurses and she was great. She made all the arrangements to have a visiting nurse from Infusion Solutions come to my house and start the IV so I wouldn’t have to go to the hospital in Nashua to have it done. She even contact my insurance company to be sure that everything was covered.

The nurse tried to put a pick-line in my arm because they can stay in for six weeks. A pick-line is an IV, which has a very thin rubber-type hose and is injected through the IV needle eight inches up the vein. I’m told that it’s not as bad as it sounds, that the initial IV is the worst part of it. After 30 minutes of trying to get the pick-line in my arm in two different spots on the same vein, we realized it wasn’t going to happen because I have so much scar tissue in that vein from being used so many times for blood work during chemo. And let me tell you, IT HURT. I only have that one vein that would accommodate such a large needle in my arm. They can’t use my right arm because of the lymph nodes being removed, so she had to put the IV in my left hand. The problem with the IV being in my hand was that it would have to be changed to a different vein every three days.

This whole IV issue SUCKED. First of all, because it was in my hand, it reminded me of my illness 24/7. Although I didn’t feel sick, except for being tired, my hand hurt the entire time I had it in. I had to inject myself every eight hours with four syringes. First saline, then antibiotic, saline again, and then heparin so I wouldn’t clot. And the antibiotic had to be refrigerated, so I had to take it out an hour prior to let it warm to room temperature. It was sort of like having to get up for a baby. YUK!! The whole process took over a half hour because I had to put it in slowly. John did it the first couple of times because the whole process made me sick to my stomach, feeling the fluids going in and all, but after that, I felt I needed to handle it myself because he’d be going back to work on Monday.

Dr. Chatson called on Sunday to see if things looked better. When I told him they really didn’t, he said he was sending me to see Dr. Strampher, an Infectious Disease doctor on Monday. That I needed stronger meds and only an ID doc can prescribe them. That these drugs are too strong for a regular IV so Dr. Strampher would probably send me to the hospital to have a pick-line put in at the radiology department. They would inject my vein with dye and be able to put it in above where the scar tissue is. At that point it was OK with me because the vein in my hand hurt really bad by then when I did the injections. In the matter of fact, I couldn’t even do the Sunday night injection because it burned so badly. Seemed I wasn’t going to have such a pleasant Monday and looked like our entire trip to Florida was going to be cancelled.

On Monday, John took me to see Dr. Strampher and who had two suggestions, one being the pick-line and the other being an oral antibiotic. Not a tough decision. The only problem with the oral one was that it was so crazy expensive that he’d have to fight with my insurance company to cover it, and it came with a lot of food restrictions. Thanks to Dr. Strampher, it was approved and guess what? I was to leave for vacation three days later. Crazy expensive, oh yeah, $3,822.99 for 56 pills (28 days). Can you believe that? Dr. Strampher also explained that if this drug doesn’t work, that there’s one more antibiotic he’d add along with the Zyvox. If that didn’t take care of the problem, then I’d have to have my expanders removed. If it does work, I have to be off of the meds for a month before we can continue with the reconstruction to be sure that the infection won’t come back. That means that my implants most certainly won’t be going in on May 31st as planned. In taking the Zyvox, I had to watch absolutely everything I ate. Nothing aged or fermented like cheese, wine or beer (no Italian food or pizza), nothing containing yeast (bread), nothing smoked, cured or pickled, bla, bla, bla. These items could cause very high blood pressure and make me very ill. Needless to say, I had an alcohol-free vacation, but at least I got to go. I was told to get to the nearest hospital if I wasn’t feeling right.

We had a great time in Florida and were able to be with my parents to celebrate their 50th Anniversary. My sister met us down there and we had a party with my parent’s friends. We were also able to go visit our friends in Clearwater for a long weekend. The temperature was in the high 70’s, not as warm as I’d hoped, but it was much better than the 50’s we’re having here. I needed to get away from the walls of my home too. It was just great to be away.

I went back to work today and it felt great to be there. There were lots of promotions and changes today. Our Commander of the Detective Bureau is retiring after this week. We’re all going to miss him so much. He’s been wonderful to work for and truly cares about his employees. He’s been very good to me throughout this entire ordeal. Al, no one will ever fill your shoes. Things will never be the same for any of us.

I also went back to see the Dr. Strampher this morning. He said the infection showed signs of improvement and that after speaking with the Dr. Chatson, the plastic surgeon, he was probably going to extend the meds another 14 days. That’ll be a total of 42 days on Zyvox. He didn’t feel the other antibiotic would be necessary because he feels the Zyvox is clearing the strain of staff infection I have, it just might take longer. I asked if that meant that I wouldn’t need to have the expanders removed and he said that when there is this type of infection, it’s usually caused by the expanders so my chances of it reoccurring again after I’m off the antibiotics is very high. That my chances of “NOT” having to have them removed was probably 5 to 15 percent. There’s still hope. I’ve got to stay positive and keep the faith. At least I’m not in any pain. The worst thing I’m feeling right now is hot flashes.

I’ve shed my wig again. I wasn’t wearing it in Florida much and had decided that I’d shed it when I got back. People are so nice and receptive at work about the change. I’m still wearing a baseball cap, but within a couple of weeks, I won’t bother. I’ll tell ya, it not the greatest accessory to my dress collection. There’s not enough pink in my closet to match my cap.

Well I’ve bla, bla’d enough but I wanted to catch everyone up to date. I’m going to sign off now. I see the plastic surgeon on Thursday, May 5th, so hopefully he can give me better insight, or better news on any upcoming procedures. I promise not to wait so long for the next chapter.

Finally, I just wanted to say that my parents are so very lucky to have such great friends in Florida. Everyone was so receptive, caring and generous.

Talk to you soon. Lots of Love.