Doctors and Antibiotics

This lingering infection has really been my first complication from treatment for breast cancer. I made it through chemotherapy on schedule and I was healthy enough to have a bilateral mastectomy just two and a half weeks after my last chemotherapy treatment. Don’t get me wrong – chemotherapy is tough and it takes a toll on one’s body. But, I did not have any major side effects that many chemotherapy patients have. I seemed to get better after surgery and gain a little strength, but I hit a wall in mid-November. I didn’t feel well during December, but I attributed it to the ‘anti estrogen’ drug Femara that I started on November 1st. The side effects vary from person to person, so I thought that was what was making me feel tired and blah. It wasn’t as if I was sick, I just didn’t feel well. Everything was going ok until Christmas day when an infection in my right breast (or at least where my breast used to be) and underarm area knocked me off my feet AND I missed Christmas with the family. I ended up in the Salina hospital for a week on IV antibiotics. I also had the seroma drained twice while there. Since I left the hospital on New Year’s Day, I have still battled this pesky infection. I met with my local doctor on Monday and she sent me to the Manhattan hospital (not admitted) to have the seroma drained again. This time the doctor could only drain 50 cc’s of fluid compared to 300 and 240 cc’s while I was in Salina. I am on my fifth antibiotic since Christmas Day – IV Rocephin and Vancomycin in the hospital, and Keflex, Augmentin and Levaquin at home. I am ready for an end to this infection!

I will meet with my oncologist and surgeon on Thursday at KU Med. Hopefully, they will have an answer to the bug that seems to have taken up residence in my body. I am hoping this infection is what was making me feel yucky for the past several weeks. My hope is that I will defeat this infection very soon and feel like a new woman! I really want to move on with my life. I want to return to the classroom and feel like the old Mary Kay. Will that ever happen? I am not sure I can go back to the old Mary Kay because of what I’ve been through. We learn from our life experiences, we don’t stay the same. I probably have thought more about my life in the past eight months than I have in the past eight years. Did I learn anything? I am not sure about that, but my perspective has certainly changed. So, what am I trying to say? Two things: I want to feel better so that I can live life with my new perspective.

I want to give a special ‘shout out’ to my sister Debbie who gave up her Christmas Day festivities to be with Nancy and me at the Russell Hospital and the Salina Hospital. She is the one who rolled her eyes when the first ER doctor said I had the crud that everyone else had or that I had a bladder infection. I wish you could have seen her facial expression each time he tried to push one of those diagnoses on us. Anyway, Debbie arranged to have me admitted to the Salina hospital. The person who did the paperwork in admitting at the Salina hospital asked me if I had connections here, I just said yes. I was too sick to explain about Debbie. According to Debbie, I did save her about 5,000 calories on Christmas Day by spending the day in the hospital. She is sure she would have grazed all day on the good food at Susan’s house.

Love to all,
Mary Kay