Kicking Cancer’s A** ~ Two Weeks Down…And We Already Had Enough

I last wrote a week ago today…thinking a week at a time was good enough to keep family and friends in the loop…boy was I wrong…Friday after the hubs had some extra fluids in him he came home and rested…honestly feeling so much better…The best he has felt since the whole treatment started. Saturday morning we were so excited to be able to sleep without having to wake up to an alarm clock…pure heaven if you ask me. Saturday was a typical day…trying to find something for him to eat since his taste buds are slowly going kaput…a few visitors to spend time with him and check to see how he was doing. We were even having good friends over to play some games that night but as the day came and went…the more fatigued he grew…so he headed to bed fairly early…8pm might not be all that early for his “norm” right now. But around 9pm he called me upstairs…and I remember thinking thank God I went right away because I was in major cleaning and cooking mode {Easter was the next day and we were expecting 18-20 peeps}. I went upstairs and knew something was wrong ~ he was pale as a ghost and complaining of left shoulder and arm pain. I said I think we should go to the ER because it sounds like a heart-attack and he said he had absolutely no chest pain…I again say let’s go, and he states he has no chest pains. Getting a little upset and wondering why he is arguing for the fact I wanted to help I told him I was calling the 1-800 line for after hours for his oncologist. I called ~ gave my info to the nurse for the on-call oncologist to call us back…which seemed like FOREVER but in reality it was less than 5 minutes. She called back…put her on speaker for the both of us to talk to her and after hearing his “feeling funny” pains she said she DOESN’T think he is having a heart-attack but to make sure ~ run him to the ER so they can do an EKG to rule it out and then chuck up to another lovely side effect of treatment. During her explaining on going to the ER Greg is now feeling like an elephant was sitting on his chest…OH BOY…here we go…we couldn’t get out of there fast enough…and he was literally so out of it…almost like he was going to fall over…told my daughter where we were going…got him in the car and away we went. We didn’t even get out of our development when the on-call oncologist called us back and said she spoke with the ER and a Dr. Vrobel was waiting for us and to just ask for him…wow…this made it so much more stressful…crap this is serious! this is real!!!

No sooner did we arrive at the ER at Medina Hospital…which I have literally rotted so many other times…thinking great…its a full house…we will be here all night…go to the clear window and ask for Dr. Vrobel…she looks at me like I’m crazy…calls in the back for him and before you know it a nurse comes and grabs the hubs…now in a lot of chest pain and needing help to stand up…he is refusing a wheel chair right now…why…he has to do this now…that man… the nurse behind the window hands me a clipboard with papers on it…and I’m like are you freaking kidding me…the hubs is now out of sight…why can’t I go back right now and see what’s going on?…I sign a few release forms and as soon as I hand them back another nurse comes grabs me and takes me back to where Greg is…EKG is already done and there are a TON of doctors and nurses around him…then all of a sudden there are 3 nurses around me telling me the hubs indeed is having a heart-attack and he will be life-flighted to downtown Cleveland Clinic…now my heart is pounding…I want to vomit at this time, I am shaking… I remember thinking great…he is on his was of kicking cancer’s ass and he is actually going to die of a damn heart-attack! Shit what do I do now…I remember I couldn’t even see the nurses anymore through the tears…I hurry up and wipe them away and go up to Greg on the gurney and ask how he is doing…he’s asking me what is going on…the docs hear this and tell him “Your having a heart-attack Mr. Campbell”…and of course the hubs says “Are you f**king serious?” Well at least he is comprehending what was going on….what felt like forever again I knew I had to start calling people…the life-flight people are in the room now telling me the process and what I should do ~ all the while I am calling Samantha…got the words out “your dad had a heart-attack we are….” then I put the phone down to hear what the doctor came in to say…he received some shots….and some medicine in his IV and will be in someplace I have no idea what it was nor cared at that matter…I just wanted to start heading to Cleveland Clinic and I remember hearing Sam “what is going on…why is this happening…” screaming and crying on the phone….OH CRAP…I called Sam and totally forgot…oh how I felt awful…this was only one phone call and I couldn’t even do that right…so much was going on way too fast…so intense…I had to remind myself to breathe…when will this poor man get a break.

I was advised not to drive by myself…oh no who do I get to drive me because once I’m down there…I’m down there…for the night…upon my only 3 phone calls the word go out and I had my son offered to take me to the Clinic and all the kids had their significant others driving them there as well and friends to take care of Frankie and the dogs…and also remembering HOLY CRAP why is it taking so long to get there…why does it have to be so far away…. we make this trip everyday but it just didn’t seem like the normal drives…I felt the world was driving slow and following every traffic law out there…jeez…where are those people flying through traffic signs and traffic lights when you need them! Everyone came from all differently directions but we oddly arrived at the same time…so now I felt I had to put big girls pants on and let the girls cry and I be their shoulder…which I don’t think worked because my daughter noticed me shaking…but I did manage to keep the tears back until I was able to see the hubs. We waited for approximately 2 1/2 hours before we could see him in ICU so I was able to get in touch with my sister to kindly tell her she was having Easter…which I knew she would have no problem with it. He looked like absolute crap when we walked in…you just knew he went to hell and back…the kids visited for awhile and left…I told them I would keep them updated…I slept the best I could on their ever so comfy recliner ~ not… But he graduated to a big boy room in no time…he called me to let me know in the middle of the night the next following evening they moved him out of ICU…into a step down unit on the cardio floor…I walked into his room I thought he was in a hotel suite…very nice! and a fold down couch that goes into a bed…a better night sleep for when I stay…phew…things are calming down again. Every day they played around with new meds after each test results came back to what ever they had to do when ballooning his artery {I don’t even know if that is even right?} and confirmed it was a blood clot….blood thinners added to the list of meds…oh joy…it was hard enough to keep track of what he was already on!

The hubs was in the hospital for a total of 4 days…getting stronger and stronger everyday…he missed a radiation treatment Monday so they doubled them up on Tuesday and continued his normal schedule Wednesday and was able to jump ship…now talk about a happy camper…every day he is getting stronger and stronger and feeling as good as he can. The last morning the hubs oncologist came into his room (about 4:30am….what hours do these people work…my goodness) to tell him for his next chemo treatment which is Monday, April 11th, he will being staying at the hospital until Thursday because of the terrible reaction he had with the first chemo and it’s only to get worse second time around…news he was NOT happy to received, but made me extremely happy to say the least.

I have to say thank you for all the prayers…cards…meals… and love everyone has shown to us during this difficult time! I cannot express enough how much it is appreciated. Let’s hope week 3 is very uneventful…and my next blog post is boring as ever!