Need some advice

Options
arndog64
arndog64 Member Posts: 537
in Head and Neck Cancer #1
Ok, you all now my husband has been in the hospital for 5 days. His temp at 98.2 once they got the fever under control. I brought him home last night and this morning he looked like he was not feeling well and I took his temp and it's at 99.6. I am worried that he is starting to head south agian.

Comments

  • Noellesmom
    Noellesmom Member Posts: 1,859 Member
    #2
    Options
    call the doctor
    When is he scheduled for a re-check? I would call the doctor, report the temperature and go from there.

    Did they send him home with antibiotics? Was there an infection? Don't remember seeing the answer to those questions...
  • arndog64
    arndog64 Member Posts: 537
    #3
    Options
    Noellesmom said:

    call the doctor
    When is he scheduled for a re-check? I would call the doctor, report the temperature and go from there.

    Did they send him home with antibiotics? Was there an infection? Don't remember seeing the answer to those questions...

    They told me not to worry
    They told me not to worry about it. No infection... But, he is back to being out of it. I am going to watch him and if does not get better and the fever goes up we are going back. Sometimes, I think the doctors see this all the time and say it's normal. But, my husband has been pretty darn sick lately.
  • Daddisgrl
    Daddisgrl Member Posts: 116
    #4
    Options
    I'm trying to read your
    I'm trying to read your other post to see what's going on; was replying to your part 2 post; then I found this one; so I will paste my thoughts here..... you said- He has the pain patch, liquid vicodin, liquid methadone. But they wear off in 2 hours and his dose says only take at 4 hr intervals. So, needless to say his pain is not managed well at home.

    Meth is nasty stuff; get him off of it. It could actually be making his pain worst. I was on it for 3 weeks for my back; it helped for some pain but made other pain 100x worst- such as spasms.

    The best for pain was Actiq pops- tell them to humor you. My hub found they worked better then the patch for throat pain. They actually helped numb the pain so he could eat. He found poached eggs the easiest at your hubs point.

    I'm not sure where your hub was treated; I saw it was not MDA.. It doesn't sound like you're happy with the care he's gotten. I see he's had 3 different chemo's. The issues he's having now are probably due to the chemo.

    Keep your eye on him; his next few days may be rough after being admitted. Mine was sent home after 4 days of morphine; so we were dealing with him coming off of morphine. I could see him detoxing & what worked for us was giving percocet every few hours to ease the detox.

    If you feel the need to rush him to the hospital again; is it possible to take him to MD Anderson's ER? That may be your best bet. I don;t feel it's too late for a feeding tube btw.

    I'm still trying to figure this board out- trying to figure out how to get replies emailed to me.
  • arndog64
    arndog64 Member Posts: 537
    #5
    Options
    Daddisgrl said:

    I'm trying to read your
    I'm trying to read your other post to see what's going on; was replying to your part 2 post; then I found this one; so I will paste my thoughts here..... you said- He has the pain patch, liquid vicodin, liquid methadone. But they wear off in 2 hours and his dose says only take at 4 hr intervals. So, needless to say his pain is not managed well at home.

    Meth is nasty stuff; get him off of it. It could actually be making his pain worst. I was on it for 3 weeks for my back; it helped for some pain but made other pain 100x worst- such as spasms.

    The best for pain was Actiq pops- tell them to humor you. My hub found they worked better then the patch for throat pain. They actually helped numb the pain so he could eat. He found poached eggs the easiest at your hubs point.

    I'm not sure where your hub was treated; I saw it was not MDA.. It doesn't sound like you're happy with the care he's gotten. I see he's had 3 different chemo's. The issues he's having now are probably due to the chemo.

    Keep your eye on him; his next few days may be rough after being admitted. Mine was sent home after 4 days of morphine; so we were dealing with him coming off of morphine. I could see him detoxing & what worked for us was giving percocet every few hours to ease the detox.

    If you feel the need to rush him to the hospital again; is it possible to take him to MD Anderson's ER? That may be your best bet. I don;t feel it's too late for a feeding tube btw.

    I'm still trying to figure this board out- trying to figure out how to get replies emailed to me.

    Actually, he is not a
    Actually, he is not a patient at MD Anderson, but we are thinking about switching to MD. Right now he is using the doctors at Memorial Hermann SE. You are right about the methadone, he does not like it. But, his pain doctor told him to keep using it, it's good stuff and said his body will know what to do with it. His pain meds have changed sine the hospital visit. He is on Dilata, Methadone and liquid vivodin. No more pain patches. I will watch him over the weekend and if his fever gets over 100.4 and stays up we will go back.
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #6
    Options
    Daddisgrl said:

    I'm trying to read your
    I'm trying to read your other post to see what's going on; was replying to your part 2 post; then I found this one; so I will paste my thoughts here..... you said- He has the pain patch, liquid vicodin, liquid methadone. But they wear off in 2 hours and his dose says only take at 4 hr intervals. So, needless to say his pain is not managed well at home.

    Meth is nasty stuff; get him off of it. It could actually be making his pain worst. I was on it for 3 weeks for my back; it helped for some pain but made other pain 100x worst- such as spasms.

    The best for pain was Actiq pops- tell them to humor you. My hub found they worked better then the patch for throat pain. They actually helped numb the pain so he could eat. He found poached eggs the easiest at your hubs point.

    I'm not sure where your hub was treated; I saw it was not MDA.. It doesn't sound like you're happy with the care he's gotten. I see he's had 3 different chemo's. The issues he's having now are probably due to the chemo.

    Keep your eye on him; his next few days may be rough after being admitted. Mine was sent home after 4 days of morphine; so we were dealing with him coming off of morphine. I could see him detoxing & what worked for us was giving percocet every few hours to ease the detox.

    If you feel the need to rush him to the hospital again; is it possible to take him to MD Anderson's ER? That may be your best bet. I don;t feel it's too late for a feeding tube btw.

    I'm still trying to figure this board out- trying to figure out how to get replies emailed to me.

    EMAILS ~ Daddisgirl
    I don't think you can get emails mailed to you from people posting. But if you have a personal message to your CSN email box, that can be directed to your email and at least let you know you have a message waiting for you....

    I could be wrong, but that's how mine works...

    Best,
    John
  • Daddisgrl
    Daddisgrl Member Posts: 116
    #7
    Options
    arndog64 said:

    Actually, he is not a
    Actually, he is not a patient at MD Anderson, but we are thinking about switching to MD. Right now he is using the doctors at Memorial Hermann SE. You are right about the methadone, he does not like it. But, his pain doctor told him to keep using it, it's good stuff and said his body will know what to do with it. His pain meds have changed sine the hospital visit. He is on Dilata, Methadone and liquid vivodin. No more pain patches. I will watch him over the weekend and if his fever gets over 100.4 and stays up we will go back.

    What I meant was that I saw
    What I meant was that I saw you wanted to switch; if he needs to be taken to the ER; think to take him to MD Anderson's ER- then switch his care that way.

    They prescribe meth because it's cheap. My personal opinion is they should not be prescribing it because there are other medications that work just as good. Meth could be giving him other issues like an addiction. Meth is used for heroine addicts & is very hard to come off of even when used for pain management. Do some research; it's nasty stuff.
  • Daddisgrl
    Daddisgrl Member Posts: 116
    #8
    Options
    Skiffin16 said:

    EMAILS ~ Daddisgirl
    I don't think you can get emails mailed to you from people posting. But if you have a personal message to your CSN email box, that can be directed to your email and at least let you know you have a message waiting for you....

    I could be wrong, but that's how mine works...

    Best,
    John

    Thanks John.

    Thanks John.
  • arndog64
    arndog64 Member Posts: 537
    #9
    Options
    Daddisgrl said:

    What I meant was that I saw
    What I meant was that I saw you wanted to switch; if he needs to be taken to the ER; think to take him to MD Anderson's ER- then switch his care that way.

    They prescribe meth because it's cheap. My personal opinion is they should not be prescribing it because there are other medications that work just as good. Meth could be giving him other issues like an addiction. Meth is used for heroine addicts & is very hard to come off of even when used for pain management. Do some research; it's nasty stuff.

    OK - I will take him to the
    OK - I will take him to the MD ER, if temp rises ( still sitting at 99.1-99.6). Thanks for the info. I will research the methadone. I am worried about the addiction thing. He has been on pain meds since Febuary.
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #10
    Options
    arndog64 said:

    OK - I will take him to the
    OK - I will take him to the MD ER, if temp rises ( still sitting at 99.1-99.6). Thanks for the info. I will research the methadone. I am worried about the addiction thing. He has been on pain meds since Febuary.

    Tylenol
    Have they recommended Tylynol to you....of course don't take it if they haven't. But when I had fevers, they did and it worked OK for me...

    You might call in first and just let them no what's going on, especially before the week-end.

    John
  • sweetblood22
    sweetblood22 Member Posts: 3,228
    #11
    Options
    Daddisgrl said:

    Thanks John.

    Thanks John.

    Emails
    I think you can get emails.

    If you look in the upper left hand corner and click on My CSN Space. Then click on Edit Tab. I think that you can go in under preferences and get a daily summary of emails sent to you.
  • miccmill
    miccmill Member Posts: 248
    #12
    Options
    Daddisgrl said:

    Thanks John.

    Thanks John.

    Pain control
    Pain control is extremely important and it sounds like you've been referred to a Pain specialist. They are the doctors who ultimately presribe (or should be)something like Methadone, not the oncologists.

    Glenn got inadequate relief from Fentanyl or Morphine and was sent to a Palliative Care specialist who prescribed Methadone.

    He had no trouble with this med. It was prescribed carefully because he had failed on Morphone and Fentanyl and it was used successfully for about 2.5 weeks to treat intractable pain.

    Good luck.

    Lisa
  • Daddisgrl
    Daddisgrl Member Posts: 116
    #13
    Options
    arndog64 said:

    OK - I will take him to the
    OK - I will take him to the MD ER, if temp rises ( still sitting at 99.1-99.6). Thanks for the info. I will research the methadone. I am worried about the addiction thing. He has been on pain meds since Febuary.

    You're welcome. Know the
    You're welcome. Know the side effects & interactions so that you can call the Dr

    At the end of treatment; my hub had a lot of pain. I'd asked for the actiq pops but they kept blowing me off. He was on percocet at the time. They gave the patch which did not agree with his body; he'd throw up if it was on longer then a few hours. The doctor finally humored me & wrote the actiq script; it took about 4 days to come in. He used the patches (taking off right after rads) with percocet to get through the rest of radiation; then the pops came in. He was able to manage all of his pain with the pop. It was great because he felt it coated his throat & was the only thing that actually stopped the sore throat pain. I don't understand why doctors prescribe things like patches to give 24 hour relief or meth when they have something that could work better then the other drugs. He continued to use them off & on for a year after & likes that if his throat started bothering him; he could suck on one for a few minutes & it would stop the pain quickly; he wouldn't need to put as much drugs into his system then a small amount.
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #14
    Options
    sweetblood22 said:

    Emails
    I think you can get emails.

    If you look in the upper left hand corner and click on My CSN Space. Then click on Edit Tab. I think that you can go in under preferences and get a daily summary of emails sent to you.

    Checked
    Dawn, I have all of those checked and my email inserted. The only emails I ever get is if someone sends me PM on CSN. Then I receive and email letting me know I have a private message....

    But maybe yours reacts differently...we are all abi-normal you know (some more than others)...LOL.
  • sweetblood22
    sweetblood22 Member Posts: 3,228
    #15
    Options
    Skiffin16 said:

    Checked
    Dawn, I have all of those checked and my email inserted. The only emails I ever get is if someone sends me PM on CSN. Then I receive and email letting me know I have a private message....

    But maybe yours reacts differently...we are all abi-normal you know (some more than others)...LOL.

    Emails
    Ohh! Ok. I don't have them checked, so I wasn't sure. Figured I would throw it out there. Thanks, John.

Discussion Boards