MissMolly wrote:BenBen:
I have been reading your posts and notice your legitimate concerns for infection owing to low WBC and neuropeotic. I share with you a severely compromised immune system, mine owing to bone marrow suppression effects of long term corticosteroids.
I do not wear facial/air particulate masks when I am out of the house. I do avoid congested public venues. I choose a seat in the hospital waiting area that is far to a corner or outer edge of the waiting room, or I stand in an adjacent hallway. I grocery shop at Whole Foods for its quality of food sourcing.
The most important means of keeping yourself free from secondary infection is through hand washing and keeping hands away from your face - particularly keeping your hands away from your eyes, nose, and mouth. Bacteria have to have a portal of entry into the body. For people who are immunosuporessed, it is imperative to keep one's hands away from one's face.
There have been varied studies that have monitored how many times people touch their face in the course of 15 minutes. Reports of 30 + hands to face contacts. A scratch of the nose. A rub to the corner of an eye. Smoothing and combing of hair with the fingers. Resting the chin in the palm of a hand.
Your number one defense against infection is avoiding touching your face with your hands + thorough hand washing.
I have taken these two practices to heart myself in being mindful not to allow bacteria to find access via my eyes, nose, and mouth.
Karen
I'm sorry to hear you suffer from immuno suppression long term. I certainly hope that my body will come back to producing on its own after all the chemo.
I do know that handwashing and avoiding touching of the face is one of the number one things to do. I do find myself touching my face occasionally and keep training myself to not.
I used to have a habit of biting my nails. Now with chemo and neutropenia seems I've cured myself of that bad habit entirely. Yaye.
According to lists I've found online from neutropenia facilities/research there is a long list of things to do.
I wash my hands probably on the order of 100 times a day. Always followed by antibacterial lotion.
I obsessively wipe down things with antiseptic wipes. I also spray lysol disinfecting spray on our shoes and around the house periodically.
I avoid raw foods, nuts, etc as they all probably are housing some form of bacteria that normal individuals can handle, but not the neutropenic.
It really is alot of extra work. I can't imagine it being long term.
I've been applying vaseline to my nose as suggest by a nurse for eliminating nose bleeds.
While it's worked quite well, I've also read that vaseline can be an environment for bacteria to live.
I'm careful with it. I use qtips instead of my fingers to apply it.
I do wear n95 masks when I go to the cancer center or hospital. Every time I go I note that someone is coughing and go to the far side of the room from them.
The n95 does well at protecting from ejected elements of cough/flem/etc as they form a good seal. The regular hospital masks have large area on the sides that allow outside air in.
So yeah, I'm probably borderline obsessive about it. The infection I had/have or whatever was probably brought on by the thrush that oxi seems to induce me with each treatment.
The magic mouthwash does wonders at eliminating it, but it seems to reappear every chemo session. I also had some cracking in the corners of my lips, which is indicative of fungal infection. That's cleared up with use of the magic mouthwash. Unfortunately I don't know for certain if I had/have infection as my cancer center doesn't seem worried about it, so I'm not getting any antibiotics or antifungal medicine - except for the antifungal properties in the magic mouthwash.
Last night i had a mild fever ranging from 99-100, but woke with none. So when I went for zarxio shots all my vitals were in normal range. They basically told me we'd just push through with the next chemo treatment unless I have further symptoms. So its a watch and monitor thing. One good thing is that the tenderness decreased today. It's still mildly there if I touch the area but isn't like it was the day before with being very sensitive.
sreekanth wrote:I had the port placement surgery last week (8/17/17 Thu) and the first infusion the same day.
My right side of the neck also felt tender earlier this week. I ignored it thinking it is must be from the port and the incision they made to watch the procedure through a scope. It is not bothering me now.
If I were you, I would call the clinic nurse.
I also had some neck pain after the install that lasted about a week. It was similar to what I'm experiencing the last few days, but my port was installed 4 months ago.
I was told by my onc that the port could cause internal infection and its possible to not even be aware of it as the infection would be on the internal skin. I've also read that some individuals immune system will attempt to fight the materials in the port as intruders - causing infectious like reactions. So there are many things that can develop into infection.
I didn't get any plan from my ONC unfortunately as the nurses said he was out of the office, probably with a patient.
So I am just in monitor phase, watching my temps, blood pressure, and other symptoms such as a mild nasal drip and liquid bowel movements.
I'll know more Tuesday when I have pre-chemo appointment with him.
thanks all for advice, personal experiences, and support.
This place is great
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