Illness when you have cancer

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ChaosRains
ChaosRains Member Posts: 132
edited June 2014 in Managing Side Effects of Breast Cancer and Its Treatment
Illness when you have cancer
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  • ChaosRains
    ChaosRains Member Posts: 132
    edited June 2014

    Hi ya'll was just wondering if anyone else seemed to get sick more easily BEFORE even going through treatment?

    I very rarely get sick but over the weekend on a family vacation to the beach before chemo starts i started vomiting and had diarrhea from about 4am saturday morning until 7am sunday morning could keep nothing down not water... nothing. Managed to keep water and chicken broth down sunday then yesterday morning it was back with a vengance.  

    Finally decided to go to the ER because i was seeing spots, i was of course severely dehydrated but in addition my potassium levels were very low and my WBC was very elevated.  10 hours later with 2 IVs of fluids 2 packets of potassium added to the IV as well as an antibiotic. 

    There was no definitive diagnosis and quite honestly i was just glad they found something for the nausea and vomiting (they had to try 3 different meds before finding one that would work) so at themoment didnt think to question them further about the elevated WBC or the low potassium

    But now at home feeling very weak, trying to recover and thinking... for someone who rarely gets sick that was a whopper i thought i was going to die... ive never felt that bad in my life! 

    I have to be strong, to start chemo, to fight this... and all i want to do is sleep! 

    Im scared now... what if i cant handle chemo? 

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  • Moderators
    Moderators Member Posts: 25,912
    edited June 2014

    ChaosRains, we're sorry you had such a rough weekend, but relieved that you're feeling better. Until you hear from other members about their own experiences, here are a couple of links to the main Breastcancer.org site that have information that should be useful for you:

    Low White Blood Cell Count

    Eating When You Have Diarrhea

    • The Mods

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  • Leah_S
    Leah_S Member Posts: 8,458
    edited June 2014

    ChaosRains,  I'm so sorry you had to go through that. What an ordeal!

    The lowered potassium was probably caused by the dehydration, and WBC are usually elevated in the presence of infection so the blood work was what you would expect to see in that situation.

    Did you tell your onc what happened? It's important that you do in case it affects the timing of the chemo. Meanwhile, rest as much as you can and take care of yourself.

    Best of luck with your treatments.

    Leah

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