What's Up With the Doc 26? - Crawling Back Into the Light

It's been a tough 11 days, I'll admit. Friday evening, September 19th, after a wonderful meal of barbecued ribs and potato salad, Robert fell down the basement steps while fetching a pie for dessert. He was in the ICU for two days with fractured skull, blood in his brain, a couple of fractured spinal transverse processes and bangs, bumps and bruises everywhere that wasn't actually broken. He came home Monday evening, the 22nd. He's still having a lot of pain, but is gradually increasing his activities. Good thoughts for him are much appreciated, as it will be another 4-6 weeks before he really starts feeling like himself again.

The Free to Breathe walk on Sunday, September 21st was great. I walked with my father, Lindsay, Jacob, Jeni, Hannah, Philip, a friend of Philip's and two nurses from my hospital. I spoke briefly to the crowd to fire everyone up before we set off. The weather was beautiful and my team raised well over $6000 - thank you to all of you who donated! There were over 500 participants and over $47,000 raised for lung cancer research.

My Tarceva rash really became uncomfortable on Monday and I called for some topical Clindamycin. I didn't feel very well on Monday - got dizzy feeding the animals and threw up before work. I think I may have been starting off a little dehydration after the walk in the sun. I saw the doctor on Tuesday and he started Minocin for the rash and Augmentin because I had a wee fever on Tuesday morning. By Wednesday night I was having watery stools and by Thursday I was pretty constantly nauseated and not feeling well. I talked to the nurse on Friday and started Lomotil. I went home from work early on Friday and napped during slow days on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday evening I developed an awful metallic taste in my mouth and by the time I got to work yesterday I was truly miserable with nausea and dizziness. I had skipped my Sunday evening and Monday morning doses of Augmentin. I called the nurse. She yelled at me and made me come in for some IV fluids.

Today the taste is almost gone, the nausea is manageable and the diarrhea is better. I think the Augmentin was the major culprit for my misery but this Tarceva is no picnic. Lindsay is coming up tomorrow to help me figure out some sort of makeup regimen that will allow me to look a little less horrifying. I only have Friday to work clinically this week. My mother and sister come next week, so I'm hoping that by mid-October we'll all be feeling a little more like ourselves.

Before anyone yells at me about not calling for help, there's really not anything anyone could have done for us. I've got to adjust to the Tarceva and Robert just has to recover. So it's been a not very good 11 days but I'm hoping for much better to come.

Keep the good thoughts coming.

Lisa