On Wednesday night, Will stopped vomiting from the chemo and by Thursday morning felt better, except his voice was a little raspy. By Thursday night he was coughing and wheezing and I called an ambulance because he seemed short of breath. They took him to a local community hospital. He has pneumonia. It's being treated and he is stable and improving, however, the experience was really awful. The doctors at the community hospital were absolutely clueless about stage IV melanoma treatments and their side effects. They told me he would die Friday n
On Wednesday night, Will stopped vomiting from the chemo and by Thursday morning felt better, except his voice was a little raspy. By Thursday night he was coughing and wheezing and I called an ambulance because he seemed short of breath. They took him to a local community hospital. He has pneumonia. It's being treated and he is stable and improving, however, the experience was really awful. The doctors at the community hospital were absolutely clueless about stage IV melanoma treatments and their side effects. They told me he would die Friday night, they told me there was probably no point in treating this, melanoma was untreatable anyway, etc. When I said "He's been responding well to the chemo", the doctor snapped, "What does THAT mean?" I hauled out his latest CT scan ("reduction in tumors" , etc.) and the guy ignored it and sent hospice people in to me who told me, "Melanoma is a horrible cancer and there is no treatment that works." I kept explaining that as long as he was responding to the treatment he had a chance at prolonging survival and opportunity for more targeted treatments, but was treated as though I was waving entrails and bones and claiming the fairies would heal him.
I had his oncologist staff from Rush call the hospital and talk to them and things have improved since then. He was moved out of ICU within 48 hours, he's getting breathing treatments and his appetite has improved. His oncological nurse said that while his next chemo dose may be altered by this, this was NOT unexpected at 8-10 days post chemo when his immune system is so low.. What an experience, though. I am anxious to get him back home and to his proper doctors.
If I'd had any warning, I would have definitely just gotten him to Rush asap. But this came on so fast that I didn't – and with breathing trouble, I was too fearful to drive him myself. With his oncology staff insisting to the community hospital staff that this is "an acute crisis that is treatable", things have turned around but this was a big eye opener. Stay away from medical staff who don't understand melanoma!
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