Jillian - Health Update

Life Update #12

Before I get into it, we’re moving back into our house next week! HOORAY! If you’ve been sending mail to our Jewell address, shoot me a message and I’ll give you our regular house address so nothing gets lost in the shuffle. I’m so incredibly grateful for all the cards, snacks, and gifts you’ve sent during this whole ordeal. 

I’ve been pretty quiet the last couple of weeks. My brain has needed some time to process everything that happened. If you’ve been following along, my last update was about kidney stones. My doctor wanted me to get a CT scan on Tuesday to make sure there weren’t any lingering stones. I was feeling so much better that Mike and I figured it was probably just an overcautious check, but sure, let’s get imaged. Why not?

After the scan, my appetite was back, so Mike took me to breakfast. That evening, Dylan and I were packing for our trip to visit my parents. She was going to be my airport buddy, and we were flying out Thursday. Wednesday morning, I felt the best I had in months. I drove myself to the oncologist for my blood draw, and on the way home I was mentally checking off my to-do list for the trip. I was about 10 minutes from home when my oncologist called.

Dr: “Hey Jillian, how are you feeling today?”

Me: “Great! Best I’ve felt in a while. I’m flying to visit my parents tomorrow!”

Dr: “I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’re not. You need to go to the ER right now. You have blood clots in both lungs. This is an emergency.”

Say what, now?! 

My brain could not comprehend what was happening. I called Mike and told him to meet me at home so he could take me to the ER. Then I called my parents sobbing because I wasn’t going to make it. At the ER, they CT scanned me again and, sure enough, I had 23 pulmonary embolisms in both lungs, plus a pulmonary infarction. In non medical terms, I had a bunch of blood clots and part of my right lung was dying because a clot was blocking its blood supply.

Here’s the crazy thing: I never had kidney stones! The blood clots were causing symptoms that looked a lot like kidney stones. We had even gone to the ER twice while I was in pain and it wasn’t caught. Had my oncologist not ordered that CT scan, I would have gotten on the plane the next day and could have had a very different and potentially disastrous outcome. As flying with pulmonary embolisms is not recommended. 

Because cancer and chemo put me in a high-risk category, they kept me in the hospital for 24-hour observation. I even got transported from the ER to the hospital via ambulance. Wooo!

At the hospital, I was hooked up to a heart monitor that kept cutting out whenever I moved. At one point, Mike and I heard “Code Blue” and my room number. We looked at each other as nurses came running in, ready to perform life-saving measures on me. Meanwhile, I’m over here like, “I’m just chillin.” They got me started on medication that I will need to take for the next 6 months to help clear the clots and eventually sent me home.  Bummed I missed my vacation, but on the bright side, I’m still here. 

I started my new drug cocktail last Tuesday and, thankfully, have had very few side effects. Sarah came to take care of me this week and didn’t even have to clean up any of my bodily functions. I’m sure she’s deeply disappointed. It has been so nice having her here. 

I’m heading in today for my weekly chemo drug, Taxol. I’ll update you on that later since this has already been a long one.