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bigyahu 
My father-in-law Peter has been on chemotherapy for lung and bowel cancer for 18months or so, and about three months ago suffered a blood clot in his femoral artery, for which he's been on a drug trial (some replacement for Warfarin.)
The family and I were spoiling ourselves over the long weekend, with a night in a fancy city hotel on Sunday night. We were all exhausted after a big day out and in bed by 10pm. Fast asleep sometime around midnight, I woke first to the sound of Mel's mobile phone (she was wearing earplugs because Alec and I make a bit of noise in our sleep.)
It was Peter - he'd started coughing in bed, gone to the bathroom and had started coughing up blood. Not good! He'd managed to get a neighbour to take him to the hospital, but was still in Emergency waiting for something to happen and the neighbour had to go home - could I please come and wait with him?
There's really only one answer to that question, no matter how sleepy you are and how amazingly comfortable the bed in the fancy hotel room. So I explained to Mel where I was going and headed downstairs to get the valet to bring our car up.
Nothing like the emergency department of a public hospital in the early hours of the morning to shake you out of the comfy complacency of a five star hotel!
Poor Peter had stopped coughing blood an hour ago. They'd taken some blood to check O2 and fluids, all had come back OK.
[to be continued...]
By 3am they had finally admitted him to the oncology ward, and I drove back to the hotel to be with Mel and Alec. The following day it was odd, to say the least, to know Peter was waiting to find out what was causing him to cough up blood while the family and I tried to make the best of our special weekend in the city.
At visiting time that afternoon we dropped in to see him, and the picture was only a little clearer as to what might be wrong. Still, at least he wasn't coughing up blood, and hadn't done so since the night before.
Yesterday they did a chest CT scan and we're all waiting to hear what they think might have caused it. The smart money is on the drug he's been trialled on. Warfarin messes with your blood thickness, and if this drug's meant to replace warfarin, then it probably does the same thing to your blood, making it more likely to 'leak' a bit, I guess.
The family and I were spoiling ourselves over the long weekend, with a night in a fancy city hotel on Sunday night. We were all exhausted after a big day out and in bed by 10pm. Fast asleep sometime around midnight, I woke first to the sound of Mel's mobile phone (she was wearing earplugs because Alec and I make a bit of noise in our sleep.)
It was Peter - he'd started coughing in bed, gone to the bathroom and had started coughing up blood. Not good! He'd managed to get a neighbour to take him to the hospital, but was still in Emergency waiting for something to happen and the neighbour had to go home - could I please come and wait with him?
There's really only one answer to that question, no matter how sleepy you are and how amazingly comfortable the bed in the fancy hotel room. So I explained to Mel where I was going and headed downstairs to get the valet to bring our car up.
Nothing like the emergency department of a public hospital in the early hours of the morning to shake you out of the comfy complacency of a five star hotel!
Poor Peter had stopped coughing blood an hour ago. They'd taken some blood to check O2 and fluids, all had come back OK.
[to be continued...]
By 3am they had finally admitted him to the oncology ward, and I drove back to the hotel to be with Mel and Alec. The following day it was odd, to say the least, to know Peter was waiting to find out what was causing him to cough up blood while the family and I tried to make the best of our special weekend in the city.
At visiting time that afternoon we dropped in to see him, and the picture was only a little clearer as to what might be wrong. Still, at least he wasn't coughing up blood, and hadn't done so since the night before.
Yesterday they did a chest CT scan and we're all waiting to hear what they think might have caused it. The smart money is on the drug he's been trialled on. Warfarin messes with your blood thickness, and if this drug's meant to replace warfarin, then it probably does the same thing to your blood, making it more likely to 'leak' a bit, I guess.
Comments
woah. everything ok? sorry i've been so flaky.
Doug
yeah, think so. he's been sick a while. the chemo is slooowwwwwly beating the cancer, they say, and it's not having too great an impact on his daily living. the whole coughing up blood thing is a new and unpleasant development though, so i'll keep ya posted on what eventuates. thanks for the support mate, and don't sweat it re: the flakyness, I'm the King of Flaky.
bigyahu