Caught by Surprise

Yesterday was my treatment day and surprisingly it went very fast for a treatment day. My blood draw was quick - first poke which was nice! And then the doctors were on schedule if not ahead. My doctors aren't usually on time which can be frustrating to most people but when you realize they are dealing with some very intense situations and patients. I mean it is a cancer hospital.. When they are in your room you are their #1 priority and they will stay in there as long as needed, until every question is answered and everything is covered. So I have to keep that in mind when it takes 1-3 hours to get seen. It is just part of this crazy journey! But that wasn't the case yesterday, they were early! My drug/injection was released quickly too so after I was measured (my big tumor is bigger by about a centimeter and my small one is smaller by about a half centimeter) and some side effects were discussed we did the injection and I was on my way. We injected from a different angle and I felt it more but it wasn't too bad.
I then left and actually worked an event for a friend for 3 hours and then finally went home to relax. Even though treatment days aren't really that physically hard, it is mentally challenging so it is nice to just have the evening to do nothing. I got some food, watched some tv and headed to bed. .
I have been dealing with some insomnia lately. I could be absolutely exhausted and lay down to sleep and will lay there half asleep for hours. So that was the case last night. I headed to bed around 10:30 and then at 1am was fully awake, shivering. I kept thinking "how am I so cold?" I was under multiple covers and the heat was on.. then it hit me. These are the side effects they had warned me about all along with the injections - chills, fever, body ache. I felt my face and it didn't seem warm so I continued to lay there. After about another 30 minutes I finally decided to take my temperature.. 100.3. Damnit! I also had some strong nausea and ended up throwing up. Double damnit! I am housesitting so I was alone and didn't want to fall asleep and go into a huge fever so I set my phone alarm for every 45 min to keep checking. And the fever kept climbing.  I started googling at what level do you go into the emergency room for a fever. Just so you know, that is 103. As it kept climbing I started to think of who could take me if needed and how annoying it will be to have to explain my entire medical history to the emergency doctor and what they could even do for me. At 4:15am my fever hit 101.9. I set the alarm for 30 minutes and finally at 4:45am my fever broke and was at 99.4. I was then finally able to fall asleep for real and I woke up purely exhausted. I was still nauseous too. I had to go to work for a bit and I made it through that and came back and took a good nap.
I am thankful the fever has not returned today, here's hoping it stays away. I was so caught by surprise by these side effects since I haven't had them at all through all this. They were saying that the farther out from the Ipilumumab the more the injections will have side effects. I am now 6 weeks out so we shall see how the next round does.
The study also added scans to my next appointment. They want them 9 weeks after stopping the Ipi. Scans are on 11/10 and my next appointment is 11/11. It will be interesting to see if anything has changed in the short 6 weeks.

I'm grateful that I haven't had many side effects during this treatment but man last night sucked and caught me by surprise! Now I know what to expect going forward!