A week after my last chemo my temp went up so I was sent to a&e and admitted. Problem is my treatment is being done through another hospital as our local hospital has no cancer services so no cancer ward. I have been on a general ward for 8 days. My mastectomy scar is red and swollen. A breast surgeon has taken a look and does not think that is the site of the infection. The have removed my picc as they feeL that is the source of the infection. My infection markers are slowly coming down but I still have a temp and feel rough. I was on a ward with all the other bugs and I am sure that did not help, I’m in a private room now. The doctors on the ward are in touch with the oncology team, but I can’t help thinking I would have had better targeted care on a oncologist ward.
has anyone else had an infection? Any stories would be useful for comparison. I only have two more chemo so going to ask if I can end. I can’t bear the thought of going through all this again.
I went one step further and got sepsis from my port getting infected. Spent a week in ICU in one hospital before being transferred to the cancer ward at my usual hospital. Week there in a private room was okay, but then I got moved to give someone else my room, and I was not at all happy to be in a situation where an infection had literally almost killed me, and suddenly surrounded by old people with no bowel control, using a shared bathroom, and just urgh.
Fortunately I survived, but boy was I glad to escape!
All that said, I’m not sure the overall care would have been much different. They were still half-guessing that it was the port, and I spent all three weeks on heavy duty antibiotics. Only involvement from oncology was my consultant coming for a chat about restarting chemo when I was recovered.
Hope you feel a lot better soon. It’s bad enough on the chemo, but although they warn you a bit about these possibilities it does just feel extra unfair xx
I’m recovering from sepsis.
I was feeling shocking last week, shaking and felt freezing cold, after my pre chemo bloods. my daughter eventually rang an ambulance but by then my temp was stabilising at 38.2 I stopped shaking and they monitored for an hour.
oncology team were rang but it was decided to keep me out of hospital as I was due chemo the next day.
as soon as they accessed my picc line the next day for pre meds all hell broke loose, I was shaking violently, felt so very cold and was sick everywhere.
I never want to feel like that ever again.
luckily they got my picc line out and put antibiotics into me.
I was admitted for 2 nights, strong iV antibiotics every 4 hours, but similarly to you I was on an old peoples ward, in a side room but still not an oncology ward.
I got out Thursday night and gave pretty much felt as weak as a kitten since then.
it definitely been a trauma . Sepsis is deadly
I have a chat booked in with my oncologist this afternoon but the thought of another picc line is making me feel sick.
the alternative is cannulation which I don’t feel I can do because my veins are so rubbish.
I just really do feel like crap just now.
so tired, sickly and very unwell
it doesn’t seem fair at all.
I’ve got 4 left to do and I’m now three weeks delayed as prior to this I’d been feeling Ill and there was a problem with my picc not bleeding back so it was delayed … could it have been prevented?
I feel like it could