An Unexpected Complication on an Otherwise Restful Day

A Lousy Afternoon in the ER

I had anticipated not writing another of these for a few weeks–that’s when I start maintenance chemo.  But that plan was waylaid by a little drive down to the emergency room [ER] at Stone Oak Methodist Hospital this afternoon.  Susan came along to keep- me company.  Take my iPad away when medical personnel came into the room, return it when they were gone for a while.  Oh, I forgot to say why I went in in the first place.

Okay, yesterday was a long day.  Susan was busy in the kitchen much of the morning preparing a lovely and nicely barbaric, oven-roasted turkey to welcome our son the computer programmer/developer home for the day.  Everything went well.  Aside from a fine late afternoon dinner, the Cowboys beat the Dolphins and UT squeaked past the Aggies.  Both games went up to the last five or six seconds.  I did, perhaps, have a little too much chocolate and apple pie.

So, this morning I woke up and went quickly, more quickly than I had planned, to the bathroom.  I feel rather like a 3-4 year old with potty humor mouth, but what appeared in the bowl was (dear me!  Excuse me, please.) black and greenish.  Something for Halloween and not for Thanksgiving.

So, I called Doc Onc1 and did not take the Imodium I had reached for because its label cautioned against taking it when you have…ahem…”black stool.”  That’s a direct quotation and I apologize again for the language…if any of you are squeamish.  Doc Onc1’s on-call partner, Doc Onc3, called back and told me to hie myself to the ER for various tests normally conducted by my urologist.  What a pleasant way to spend 3 – 4 hours:  an IV, blood tests, digital test (‘nuff said), and an X-Ray of lungs, stomach and full disgustive (<-- pun intended) tract.

The results?  Nada.  I did not have blood in the place suspected of having blood <--circumspection.

So, Susan and I went home with orders to call Doc Onc1 first thing Monday morning.  Were you aware that more soldiers died of diarrhea in the Civil War than of enemy action?  I had found that interesting until today.

What Doc Onc3 had suspected was that I had, in all the time of chemo treatments, developed an ulcer that was bleeding a bit (not the case).  I had suspected that the Avastin™ (possibly the culprit) had caused some kind of bleeding (the reason it is no longer approved for breast cancer while remaining the most effective chemotherapy for that cancer).  Neither case was true.  Instead, I had an inexplicable anomaly, something vaguely related to an allegory, I think.

The X-RAY Tech did compliment me on my clear lungs.  I stopped myself before complimenting her on hers.

Again, my apologies for this crappy little report, but in the interest of full disclosure….