Category: Side Effects

Cabin Fever?

Leave a comment

#TeamPamda – There’s a protocol in place should I spike a fever and last night it earned me a trip to the ER. Not to worry, I’m home now safe, sound, and resting comfortably! 

They took blood, urine, swabs, & chest x-ray to make sure I didn’t have an infection lurking anywhere and while we waited for results they pumped me full of antibiotics. Only one bit of excitement (other than the trip there and back over icy roads) was a reaction I had to the IV drip of vancomycin. It started with an itchy head and progressed to me looking like a tomato (a very itchy tomato) from the chest up.; not my best look. Some Benadryl helped me through the rest of the IV, and eventually it all cleared up once the IV was done.

Thankfully all of the tests came back negative and after a quick consultation with my gyn-onc doctors, it was determined I could go home to nurse my cold in peace…yeah, all that because I caught a cold. I felt like a nitwit, but was assured that they don’t like to risk it when we of the low neutrophil count feel puny and pop a fever.

On a fun note, it was entertaining having doctors proceed to explain microbial infections to the microbiologist. I then got to share some of my applied science adventures from my field research days…they were thrilled people came to them and not the other way around when I was done 😉

Don’t worry, I got this…

Adventures in Head Shaving

Leave a comment

I dropped in on my BamPowChow food truck friends yesterday for lunch (chicken and bacon jam quesadilla for the win!) and after complimenting me on my punk rock stubble Chef Sean gave me some unsolicited but sage advice:

  1. Shave your head in the shower.
  2. Stop shaving when you no longer hear the *scritch* *scritch* *scritch*.

That second one made me laugh because he said it so matter of factly like everyone can hear the razor in their head when shaving. Perhaps that is common for guys, but my legs are a long way from my ears and while I can’t speak for all women, I don’t recall hearing that before.

Now, I have been on the fence about shaving my head with a razor. Before last night, I was thinking I might be able to get away with the closely clipped stubble I’ve been rocking for the last week, BUT there is this weird thing happening with my hair right now and last night it became unbearable. My hair hurt. Every time my head touched the pillow it hurt me so badly I couldn’t sleep. Maria and I have developed a theory that the chemo must kill off the root ball that anchors a shaft of hair in your skin leaving the shaft exposed and able to poke you mercilessly like a tiny needle. Then not long after your hair starts to hurt it starts to fall out in droves. I’ve been using this whole weird series of events as an indicator of when to bring out the clippers. Today I hit the last level of hair to downsize so I hit the showers with razor in hand. Cue the hilarity to ensue!

the-delivery

I wasn’t that far in (and intently listening for the *scritch* *scritch* *scritch* to stop) when I realized this wasn’t going to go as smoothly as I would have hoped. For starters, it was taking a lot of work to get the *scritch* *scritch* *scritch* to stop! I was also getting tired and running out of hot water. I decided to make sure the areas NOT covered by a ball cap were shaved up as best I could and finished up my shower.

After consulting with my authority on all things manish (thanks Brock!) and the rest of the family hive mind (thanks Allison and Sue My Mother!), I arranged with Trish, my Thursday Partner In Crime to pop by Target after my weekly blood letting to pick up a Harry’s razor and some of their Post Shave Balm with aloe vera (which relieves and soothes!). Then, once back home this afternoon I set about finishing this morning’s shower and shave 😉

Take Aways:

  1. Razors meant for legs don’t seem to do so hot on heads.
  2. There’s a reason the guy’s shaving aisle is so much better than the lady’s equivalent.
  3. Wow is my head SMOOVE!
  4. Dang, I sure do have a purty head.

Don’t worry, I got this…