Thanksgiving = Flu

After 5 ½ months of being completely sickness-free, I came down with the flu over Thanksgiving. The good news is I’m still alive! The bad news is chemo was delayed and David and Noah got sick.  But I'm getting ahead of myself...Thanksgiving week started with an early trip to the airport to fly to Atlanta.

Us in the car at o'dark thirty on our way to the airport!

The week in Atlanta was really nice (once we arrived). I don’t recommend anyone try to fly with two "lap infants" (as though Noah could be called an "infant" anymore). It is totally nuts- and that was with me in a wheelchair and a guy helping us get through security. They made us sit on separate rows since there's only one extra oxygen mask per row of the airplane.  Brad said that given the stress level already he'd rather sit together on the same row and if things went bad enough to warrant the use of oxygen masks he'd volunteer to go without.  Noah (with Brad) was great on the plane - though Brad had to apologize to the jet-setters sitting next to him since they heard "Cat in the Hat" more times than they probably wanted to.  David was also good - so par for the course for him.  So thankfully the plane was fine, it was mostly the logistics getting on and off that were stressful.
In Atlanta we enjoyed spending time with Brad's folks, and both of our siblings and their spouses/kids. I don't get to see my brother that often so spending time with him and his new bride was wonderful! 

I stayed up until 2am making pies the night before Thanksgiving...maybe that is how I got the flu!

One night while we were there I was reaching into a trunk for something and the trunk lid came down on my head. I fell to the ground screaming- "Brain bleed! Brain bleed!" This was a fear of low platelets that my oncologist had instilled in me to try to keep me from doing things I shouldn't - like getting up on ladders, etc. I was fairly confident that was the end for me. My head was going to turn into a soup of bloody mush. Thank goodness my brother and sister-in-law are physical therapists. They were able to calm me down, put some ice on it and declare me fine. Turns out I have a pretty hard head.

On Sunday, Brad and I had the opportunity to speak at the Range’s church in the youth group. They are studying Joseph and the suffering that he went through so they thought our story might fit in well. It was really fun. I would love to do this more often. It makes me feel like what we are going through is not for nothing. We will get the opportunity to speak again in a couple weeks at our church group. It is fun getting to share the lessons God is teaching us with others. Maybe others can learn these lessons without having to go through suffering themselves!

Sunday afternoon I started not feeling so hot to the point where I couldn’t get out of bed to help Brad pack. My temperature started climbing and the doctors said to go to the ER once we arrived in Dallas if it was above 100.4. Let’s take a moment to talk about how much of a hot mess I was: we were sitting at the gate; I was feeling miserable trying to handle David while Brad was down the terminal chasing after Noah; my nose was just run, run, running; my fever was going up, up, up; Noah is running all over the place, melting down because he is starving- it was pure craziness. You know you are hot mess when half a dozen strangers ask you if you are okay and if you need help. I started crying as this sweet lady told me about her husband’s terminal cancer situation. (She even wrote this super sweet note to me on the plane!)

I went and took my temperature one last time in the bathroom (didn’t want to scare anyone sitting at the terminal with all the recent Ebola stuff!). It was up to 101.4- it just flew past the 100.4 mark. I texted my oncologist and she called me back immediately telling me I shouldn’t get on the plane but should get to a hospital ASAP. (How awesome is she btw, calling me on a Sunday evening!!) Brad and I were about to be the last ones to board, our bags were already gate checked and on the plane. We had to make a split-second decision- Brad and Noah boarded and David and I left the gate to leave the airport. This is going to sound super-melodramatic now knowing the end of the story, but at the time I was scared as I said goodbye wondering if I was going to see Brad again. See, I told you, melodramatic; but it really was scary at the time!!

My in-laws were already back home by this point and would have a 45-minute drive back to the airport. My oncologist told me to take a cab as every minute counted and I needed to get IV antibiotics in me ASAP. There was a line at the taxi stand and the traffic was bad on the way to the hospital so I made a crazy decision and called 911. As nutty as it sounds to get an ambulance to take you to the hospital for the flu (again, we didn’t know it was just the flu at the time…), I think it ended up being the right move (of course I haven’t gotten the bill for it yet either…). For one, I don’t think I could have handled David by myself getting to the hospital. Secondly, I would have had to sit out in the ER waiting room catching who knows what kind of diseases. Turns out it looked a little sketch-McGee out there in the waiting room (so is sketch-McGee really not a phrase? There has been great debate about it since I used it in this other blog.  Brad says it's definitely NOT a phrase.)

David and I were waiting outside the airport when the fire truck pulled up, parting four lanes of traffic in front of the airport like the Red Sea. It was sort of embarrassing having a bunch of EMTs coming to rescue from your….fever. An ambulance came up behind the fire truck a few minutes later. At first the guys were like, uhhh how do we get this baby into the ambulance? But it turned out they had a whole contraption for a baby. Once I was in, my temp was up to 102.7. David was a total gem (per usual). I tried to get a picture of us riding along but felt bad being like, I feel good enough to get a pic for my blog but bad enough to need an ambulance.

David chillin' on his first ambulance ride

The EMTs with David. He looks so happy!

Like I said, we got to skip the waiting room, which was awesome for not picking up any more diseases than I already had. It did take a super long time to get things moving while at the ER. I guess in the ER some lady with a fever is sorta bottom of the totem pole. They tested me for a million different things (love how thorough they were!), got me hydrated, and on IV antibiotics. I moved to a floor bed around 3:30AM.

My sister and brother-in-law drove down to the hospital and kept David while I was there. (Thanks guys!) My in-laws stayed with me in the ER until late, which was also super sweet. It is crazy to think that I’ve known Brad’s family for 10 whole years now! They hosted me for Thanksgiving in 2004 before Brad and I were even dating. It was so nice to have family support while out-of-town.

The doctor on the hospital floor was so sweet. He came and listened to my crazy life story and said he was so sorry that I had cancer. He was super understanding and empathetic. It was fun getting to show him my platelets and immune system charts. I’m such a nerd. The best part was that the doctor was super into getting me out of the hospital ASAP so I could get back home to get chemo and increase the likelihood of me getting to have my Christmas party. Check out the “goals” for the day in the hospital:

Today's Goals: To get better for chemo and stay alive

I got out of the hospital Monday, still feeling really bad with fevers. I crashed at the Ranges and slept almost constantly- except for midnight-3AM cyber Monday when I power shopped and bought presents for everyone on my list! That was pretty sweet.

ThankyouverymuchCyberMonday!

I was able to pay $100 to get a confirmed ticket on a flight home Tuesday. My mother-in-law went through security to accompany me to the gate. We finally made it home! It felt so good to finally sleep in my own bed again!

I took the boys into the doctors office (by myself) on Wednesday for David’s 4 month check-up and because Noah was sent home from daycare Tuesday with a fever. They both had confirmed cases of the flu- hurray! I showed up to the appointment an hour early on accident. When the receptionist told me that I just broke down crying. It was sort of embarrassing, and sort of like I didn’t even care at that point. Having the flu and taking care of two small children with the flu is really difficult it turns out.

My chemo got pushed from Tuesday to Friday to allow me some time to recover. I lost my voice Thursday so I was pretty nervous they weren’t going to give me chemo. My doctor started me on antibiotics just to be on the safe side. On Friday my numbers were all nice and high for chemo– yay for chemo! This was my second-to-last Chemo on this regimen, so just one more week the next Friday will wrap it all up. I’m trying not to get too excited knowing that I might go back to chemo depending on the results of the surgery.

I ended up not having a voice for NINE whole days after the flu (Brad says: "It was terrible"). You know how hard it is to communicate with people (including your two year old) when you don't have a voice? It finally came back the next weekend, when we had friends fly into town and we spoke at our church group. (Nice timing!)