meningitis while on xeloda/radiation

I’ve posted a more detailed account under kathy’s original thread “36 year old with cc update”, but basically Kathy caught listeria meningitis while on her 3rd week of radiation with xeloda. It’s typically only seen in immunocompromised patients, which the radiation and xeloda mustve done to kathy’s immune system. Her only symptoms were a low grade fever (we attributed to radiation) , nausea and a headache. It wasn’t until she started becoming more and more lethargic in the ER that meningitis crossed the doctor’s mind. Im just glad kathy wasnt home when she first started getting her symptoms, otherwise i may have just let her try to sleep it off and who knows if she wouldve been treated in time. So if anyone gets lethargic with a bad headache, fever, nausea, or stiff neck (kathy didnt have one) while undergoing chemo or radiation (so you may be immunocompromised), please let your doctor know and get medical attention. As rare as meningitis is, it can happen to any cancer patient who is immunocompromised. thankfully it looks like she’ll be fine now, but she was hospitalized for over 2 weeks.

-billy