My grandmother is gone

shawna
shawna Member Posts: 29
edited March 2014 in Lung Cancer #1
I just wanted you all to know that I lost my grandmother to Septic Shock, caused by chemo and radiation yesterday. She was a fighter but I want you all to know she would have done the chemo regardless of the risks. But if you are running fever or having any reaction to the chemo that is not normal, do not let them give you a treatment. My grandmother started running a low grade temp and we called and the doc called in an antibiotic. This was on Saturday. She did not get any better and lost her voice and we called again on Monday and they called her in another prescription. Tuesday, she had her appointment for chemo and even though she had temp, they gave her the treatment because they said her blood work looked okay. By Thursday she was in bad shape and we called the doc again and had an appointment on friday morning and they said they would probably have to admit her. Well, Thursday night she collapsed in the floor and we had to call 911 and have her ambulanced to Fort Worth. They put her on a ventilator and held on until yesterday at 8:30 a.m. Me and my mother were with her when she went and she was such a special person. Chemo can be a good thing. It put my other grandmother in remission and she never got her cancer back and live 18 more years. I just want yall to be carefull and ask questions when you have a bad feeling. Hang in there and God bless all of you.

Comments

  • butrfly
    butrfly Member Posts: 5
    #2
    SHAWNA,I'm very sorry to read you lost your grandmother. My Mums is going through chemo and 2 weeks ago the nurses checked her temp after they did her blood work and told us to keep a close eye on her temp. What you say in your note let's me know why they did that. So I want to thank you for that.
    Again, I'm very sorry for your loss.
    Always remember she'll hear you when you talk to her.Remember your good times together.
  • lcavelier
    lcavelier Member Posts: 9
    #3
    Sorry to hear about your grandmother. Her doctors should have known better! Thanks for the suggestions too. My dad is doing chemo and has had a fever twice. I'll make sure I tell him not to do chemo if he has a fever! Take care.
  • shawna
    shawna Member Posts: 29
    #4
    lcavelier said:

    Sorry to hear about your grandmother. Her doctors should have known better! Thanks for the suggestions too. My dad is doing chemo and has had a fever twice. I'll make sure I tell him not to do chemo if he has a fever! Take care.

    I wish they had have known better. It is hard to know what to do when you trust doctors. Tell your dad to be carefull. Ask doctors about risks, tell him to look for things like splotches on the skin, fever, thrush in his mouth, and a lowered white blood count. My grandmothers death certificate said that she died of septic shock, but a contributing factor was neutropenia (sp) it means lowered white count. Anyway when I looked it up it said that doctors should admit a patient that has this to the hospital and give them IV antibiotics. As well as reduce or postpone the amount of chemo they are getting at that time. My grandmothers doctor did neither of those things. I also looked up the kind of chemo she was getting Cisplatin and Navelbine, and Cisplatin seems to be one of the chemotherapy drugs that causes alot of these problems. Anyway, hang in there and ask or tell your dad to ask questions, questions and more questions. We thought we were asking the right ones but we were wrong. Sepsis is much easier to treat than septic shock. Had we known what to look for, my grandmother would be here today. Help your dad and if you need anything, just let me know. I do not want anything bad to happen to anyone else.
    Shawna

Discussion Boards