November 6, 2003

There were no chairs in the treatment room….they were all full! They let me have a private room and told me they’ll move me to the main room later. They decided to give me Benadryl today BEFORE my treatment. This should help with the itching. It will also make me a ZOMBIE! Taking a pill of benadryl is one thing, but having 50 mg via the catheter into the jugular vein….woah! I was zonked in a matter of minutes. I felt like I couldn’t get out of the chair, I was totally wiped. How will I drive home? What they didn’t tell me was that it would wear off by the time I went home….and it did. Of course, they pumped me with fluids and so I had to use the rest room. When I finally managed to get out of the chair and make it to the bathroom, (boy, THAT was a struggle!) I looked in the mirror and I was horrified by what I saw. My face was BRIGHT red, as was my neck and chest. I went back to the nurses station and asked, “what’s wrong?” They told me it’s a normal reaction to the anti-biotic. (I learned later by doing internet research, that they call this Red Man Syndrome! The drug causes a histamine reaction in the body.)They consulted with the Dr. He came in and looked at me and felt my face. He went back to the nurses station and prescribed a steroid for me. The nurse administered the steroid into my catheter. So now it takes TWO drugs to counteract the vancomycin. I think I’d rather have chemo!!!