So it seems the crown on my head as the self appointed poster child for chemotherapy has slipped. They tend to do that when we think we’ve got things. Love these continual life lessons in humility and limitations and frailty. I was rushed into ICU on Sunday am with an extremely severe reaction it seems to docetaxel, one of the chemotherapy drugs I receive. Day 10 into my third chemo. It presented on Friday as a rash on the back of my neck which rapidly took over most of my body with hive like welts and was beyond endurable, burning and soooo itchy. Suffice to say I endured, googled it, called oncology on Sat, spoke to the doc on call who was not too fussed mostly because I didn’t have a high temp and gave me some obvious suggestions. Dickhead. (Clearly I was not a fan of his manner). So I proceeded to self medicate with a bicarb bath and coconut oil. Soothed me momentarily. Ok for about 5 mins. Then took some serious antihistamines and antiinflammatories and pain killers too. Did not sleep a wink all night. Oh and nor did B. Happy anniversary angel. Through thick and thin hey? How you loving me now? I couldn’t scratch so I rubbed and smacked and raged and hit my body against anything I could. Including B. Pain seemed a relief from the burning neverending itch. Early am I went to the bathroom and collapsed on my return, into B’s arms. Have I mentioned I love him. He heard me mumble something, probably fuck, jumped out of bed and grabbed me before I could smack the floor. I came to hearing him call angel, angel, angel (he obviously still loves me) with a slight panic in his voice. That was when I started to panic. What the fuck was I doing on the floor? He bundled me back into bed, took my temp. 37.9. I have four emergency chemo cards that all say at 38 you rush to the hospital. Do not pass go. Not 38 yet. So I reckoned, I’d self medicate with the dexamethesone, cortisolsteriods I take before and after chemo for immediate allergic reactions, and this is clearly an allergic reaction although not immediate.  See how self sufficient I think I am? But I needed to eat to do that. So B went to get me something to eat. Isn’t he lovely? I fell asleep for two hours. So didn’t eat or medicate. And woke up to a temperature of 38.3. So B took me to emergency, and because I have a beautiful bright red alert card, I was rushed though. I was quite a sight and they admitted me immediately to ICU, where I overnighted for constant observation. My temp was sky high and my blood pressure was scarily low, and my white blood count was high, all that could indicate my body fighting a serious sepsis, not just an allergic reaction. So, I was hooked up to every machine known to man, and had a very eventful, not restful evening due to the cortisol steroids and whatever they gave me. Apparently I was quite agitated during the night. Moi? I suspect it was because I told a lovely nurse (fuck they are all lovely and true angels that walk this earth) off a little. Only because of Bill, a lovely old gentleman who had had surgery on his hip and was completely confused from the anaesthetic so kept thinking he was at home and calling for his wife and daughter and trying to remove his drips and generally and understandably frustrating the very busy ICU staff. But still, Bill was a human. A real sweet human being. In the middle of the night I heard a broken helloo…hello… hello. From Bill. I waited and no one came. We have monitors to press to call the staff but he obviously couldn’t or forgot. Again hello ….hell..o? So I thought fuck it. And pressed my button. The nurse came instantly. She has to walk past his bed and I even heard him saying hehell..o? as she passed. I said to her I’m fine but I don’t think you heard Bill calling and it’s been quite distressing to have heard him throughout the night, he is obviously in much pain. She said yes, she did hear him, and they go to him constantly, but he is so confused and is convinced she is his daughter. I said to her, well, go be his daughter.  She looked at me. Said so you don’t need anything. And walked away quite rapidly. I thought fuck maybe I wasn’t sensitive enough to how much she has had to do but fuck it, poor Bill. But I heard her go sit gently with Bill and reassure him and chat and do all those lovely things. Unsung heroes I say. Anyway I slept well after that, never heard sweet Bill again. Or anything. Until 5am when an uppity little phlebotomist came to take blood and insisted she had to use my right arm, as my lymph nodes have been removed from my left arm. Started smacking at my flat to non existent veins. I know well those are the rules. But when your veins are flat to non existent from chemo and your arms are swollen to twice their normal size from some weird reaction and the oncology nurses can’t get in under usual circumstances and the senior emergency nurses couldn’t get in and the ICU nurses couldn’t get in, and believe you me they tried, there is no getting in.They finally found a vein in my left foot (C the humour does not escape me) that they had cannulated and were using and protecting. So believe you me, miss uppity you are not getting in. I obviously didn’t call her that and I was friendly. But she was uppity. And it is useless to try. And hell for me. So you have to use the left foot as have all the others. For blood, for drips for whatever. Blow me down if she doesn’t start smacking at my veins on my swollen right oompaloompa arm again as if she’ll do it. There was nothing about her that inspired any confidence. I pulled my arm away and said I know what your rules say but you are not trying my arm, you will not get in. I have a cannula in my foot for you to use. She definitely flounced off saying well if that’s your decision. I said it is, and actually, I said, speak to the doctor and see what his decision is, or anyone on this bloody ward. Ok so maybe I was a little agitated. She went straight from me to sweet old Bill, and I heard her ask him to roll over. The fucking man has just had major hip surgery for fucks sake. Thankfully one of the ICU nurses rushed over and said exactly what I had thought. Well, not exactly. What a prick, scuse the pun, if she were a man. Anyway, after a bit, Monique, one of the beautiful ICU nurses came to me. Clearly miss uppity had been telling tales. I mentioned I might have been a bit rude to miss uppity who was so officious and really not listening to me. Monique simple bent down on the floor, asked me to dangle my foot over the edge of the bed, and took all the desired blood. And told me not to worry, she is like that. Why they send ‘professionals’ to do the job the ward staff do a million and one times is beyond them. Said under her breath. So bloody agree. Unsung heroes again. Anyway, perhaps I was a tad agitated, but apparently they gave me my steroids very late which does tend to hype one up. I woke up Mon morning in ICU, with no more clarity, but a slightly reduced rash, but still oompaloompa arms and very low BP. Moved me to a private ward to keep me under observation and on all kinds of fluids and antibiotics, did an ECG and bloody hell I don’t know what. So far it has been diagnosed as idiopathic urticaria. Bascially means severe rash caused by no idea. Clearly related to chemo, my depressed immune system but just not presenting as expected. Love being difficult. So the lovely head honcho doc here has me in his care and together with my brilliant insightful oncologist will no doubt come to see the way. If not the light. So I’m here for now, until I agitate them too much. Whilst singing their praises of course. Its just that I know more about me than any one of them. And I’m determined to see this through.