I have exorcised the fever... it's in the sink.

The night before my platelet transfusion I got a fever but it didn't last long on the thermometer, so I didn’t wake anybody up and spent the night sweating it out – literally. The next day (Fri) I seemed okay and the transfusion went well but my throat, which had been slowly swelling since the day before, was now killing me. So I mentioned the night fever to the doctor and he prescribed some general antibiotics and gave me a lecture about calling the first sign of infection, fever or worsening symptoms.

I left the hospital just before dinner and it was like my body just fell apart on the ride home, perhaps it was trying to tell me not to leave! The pain in my throat was so bad it hurt to swallow my own saliva, let alone dinner, and I was sure the swelling had doubled since driving home so I went straight to bed hurting from head to toe.

At midnight I got a fever and we drove back to the hospital. I spent the night in Emergency because the doctors thought I had an abscess in the back of my throat that would need to be opened and drained – yu-uck! Luckily the scan (I can’t remember what kind I had(?) thanks hydra-morphine) didn’t show an abscess; just a nasty infection that required serious antibiotics, and in my opinion “serious” pain killers! (In Mum’s opinion a serious exorcism too, so I sent her home to get some sleep and holy water.)

Now I'm settled into 5-west for a few days while I get antibiotics for the worst throat infection I have ever had. Last night (Sat) I thought I was feeling much better because the pain and swelling was about 50% less than it was the night before when I was admitted, but today the pain came back big time this morning.
I kept waking up overnight before I was due for my meds in pain and needing them early. This morning I was so sore that the nurse said she could double my pain killers up to 2mg every 4 hours and ran it through my line. 60 seconds later I was overcome with nausea and just made it to the sink to barf up breakfast. And then I felt great again – but that didn’t last long.

Well I guess my breakfast wasn’t digested yet and still chunky, so it wouldn’t go down the drain! That’s one way to get visitors! I have had to endure a steady stream of nurses who came to look at it, who then called the cleaners, but they didn’t know what to do, so then the maintenance guy had to come and assess it with his buddies and then come back with the right tools to take the stopper out of the drain.

As if it wasn’t embarrassing enough to have everyone check out my “sink chunks” and then lecture me about the merits of throwing up in the toilet – ya thanks – every single one of them asked me “what was for breakfast today?”

Pain killers! Fuck off, my throat is sore... where’s that holy water?