Feb 2026 Update Part I: 1st Hospital Stay & Wreck
I know people have been waiting for awhile for an official update on me and the family...whew what a month! I have thoughts I want to say for my next blog post but this getting back into the routine of our before hospital life has been a bit of a challenge. I likened it to a friend this weekend to how it felt as a kid to try to jump into moving double dutch jump ropes. We don't realize how much we do until we stop doing it for a while. So for now, I am going to give myself some grace, concentrate on rebuilding my strength, and give you guys who have been asking a short (ish) lol update on things for now.
I don't really know where the last of our family's journey left off so I will just do a recap for the last two crazy months. For those who have been following me, again, I apologize for the delay in proper updates.
Oncology Decision After Recurrence Found
After talking to my Oncologist after all my scans and going over all the options, it was decided that I begin a new chemo drug to address the lymph node recurrence around my windpipe in the paratracheal lymph node. The drug of choice is Enhertu. A cool fact, after my last recurrence and surgery to remove it, the tissue was biopsied and a genetic profile was done on it. This gave us some more insight into things and one of the facts about my cancer is it has a protein in it called HER2+. This is a marker that is found in several cancers including breast cancer and Gastrointestinal cancers among a few others.
The Enhertu drug seeks out and targets that specific protein in my body and basically works to block that protein from replicating. Then it enters the cancer cell itself via that HER2 connection and releases chemo from the inside of my cancer cells. There is a bit more nuisance to this but that is a brief description.
It is given every 21 days (3 weeks). I received my first dose on February 3rd.
1st Double Hospital Stay
We both found ourselves in the hospital mid-February ( just a couple weeks after my first chemo dose) for different things. Paul had a bad case of cellulitis that started from a cut on his leg and I had numerous DVTs (blood clots in my legs) and Pulmonary embolisms in both lungs. Cancer puts me at a bigger risk to develop them but my cancer recurrence diagnosis chemo medication and even the medication that I take for my nausea side effects from it also come with blood clot risks as well. Thankfully, I had minimal symptoms, just shortness of breath on exertion and lower o2 sats even when sitting.
I was alert to the change and went right to the ER. Truth be told, I almost left while waiting in the waiting room because I felt foolish and there were definitely people there who felt miserable. I credit a triage nurse for recognizing that I needed prompt care. She diverted me to the line of patients who were being seen in a makeshift partitioned off area of the ER waiting room and that doc saw me, saw my o2 numbers drop when I stood up and took a few steps, and had me back into a more official ER room getting scans and labs soon thereafter. A positive thing was noted during my CT scans...my recurrence tumor lymph node around my trachea was a bit smaller than the scan in January. Not bad for only one chemo session--Feb. 9th.
My CT lung scan said this:
Ultrasounds done on both of my legs said this...
There is acute deep vein thrombosis visualized in the right PTV and Peroneal Veins. There is acute deep vein thrombosis visualized in the left Peroneal Veins.
I was started on IV Heparin to address the clots and was eventually moved up to a floor room that had a great view at least : ) Meanwhile Paul went to our PCP for a follow up about his leg and the its continued unresolved Cellulitis which had moved from the toe all the way up over his knee and become stagnant . He was told to go to the ER for IV antibiotics to address it more aggressively. He did and was admitted officially to a room a day behind me, to the same floor even. We did become a bit of the talk of the hospital floor being there together. I mean who does that kind of thing right? The nursing staff was nice. They wheeled Paul down to see me a few times which was the BEST medicine for us both!
Interesting side note. 24 hours after getting up to the hospital inpatient room we had a 3.0 earthquake that was centered not too far from the hospital... right at our manmade local lake and dam no less!!!
It had an audible thunder sound to it and my food tray and the entire room rattled. It was a bit disconcerting given that it is a place where people go when there are natural disasters. I just assumed they would be stationary in such an event lol No one was injured in our town thankfully though I think some structures this time did have a bit of issues. We have had several this year and they are fairly shallow by earthquake standards.
Anyway, the event while in the hospital lent itself to great conversation with the nurses and techs for the remainder of the day about where they all were during it and what they felt.
Also, during this first hospital stay I experienced a new chemo side effect...my hair started falling out. With my last chemo before my esophagectomy in 2022/23 my hair only thinnned. This time it was coming out in chunks. I am still processing and trying to determine if losing it mostly while I was secluded away in a hospital room was a good or not so good thing. It felt lonely but also felt like I had a bit of privacy to get used to the idea.
I came home on March 1st on an oral blood thinner, on home oxygen, and even on oral antibiotics for a UTI I developed in the hospital. Paul came home a day before me after his infection FINALLY responded to a smorgasbord of antibiotics. He was also given a MUCH needed referral to an infectious disease specialist to address all of these recurrent cellulitis episodes he has continually had over the last 10+ years.
The whole blood clot and blood thinner experience is a whole thing in and of itself. And a thing that you don't really know until you are in the situation or watch a loved one go through it. The blood clots aren't magically gone when you come home. They are considered mostly stable once you are transitioned to the oral meds. There are no repeat scans and I was even told that if I was scanned, they would expect to find all of them on the scans for even up to 9 months after my hospitalization. There is also residual pain and hypervigilance to both return to normal activities AND continue to baby yourself and not do things that might jeopardize or cause more issues. Usually these fire off mentally for me at the exact same time.
Our Truck
6 days after coming home from the hospital (March 7th) we were in our neighborhood and another vehicle coming towards us went around parked cars and was on his phone not paying attention. Even though we came to a stop about 15 feet in front of him and hugged our curb to give him room, he never looked up or tried to brake. His driver side plowed into our driver's side going about 25mph. He ricocheted and skidded about 5 ft on his rim before coming to a stop behind us.
Our truck, and only vehicle, was totaled but gotta say it didn't budge. Had we been in a smaller car, I am not sure we would have both walked away like we did, especially with me on blood thinners.
Full disclosure, I did have to go to the ER because of my blood thinners and pain I was having in my back. I was given the ok to discharge the first night, but the discomfort increased and after a triage call with the nurses the next night they asked me to return for more scans as they were concerned about possible kidney or spine bruising/bleeding. I went back in; they did more diagnostics and thankfully ruled out any bleeding due to my new blood thinners which was a huge relief. I was released again to go home with comfort measures to continue to heal from the jarring of the accident.
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