Sandy had her first experience with chemotherapy Thursday. We were put into a small room in the infusion section. A nurse hooked up an IV to her port catheter and started the first chemical, Paclitaxel (Taxol). She started the drip slowly to ensure Sandy had no ill effects and she did not, so the drip rate was doubled to normal and ran for three hours. After that, the nurse started the second chemical, Carboplatin, and ran it for an hour. She flushed out the port and tubing with a saline solution and we were free to go.
At no time during all of this did Sandy experience any ill effects. In fact, we were home by 3 and went to a party at a friend’s house at 6. She had a good time visiting and I was glad to see it. Home to bed.
Friday was different. She went to work for the whole day, but when she came home for lunch her cheeks were flushed red. She didn’t feel warm all over, just in the face. She took Benadryl and the redness seemed to go away. On Friday evening, her lower back began bothering her. A heating pad helped ease the pain but not eliminate it.
By Saturday morning she was shaking, feeling light-headed. She was tired, which is unusual for her in the morning. She had heartburn. She discovered that she could no longer tolerate her favorite food: salt; it tasted bitter. She was tired most of the day and her back was bothering her more as the day wore on. She watched TV most of the day. By late evening the pain was nearly intolerable for her, so we tried to call the doctor. The mobile phones couldn’t find service. Now what? But within a few minutes service came back well enough to make the call. A doctor eventually came on line to suggest she take a painkiller. We had Vicodin on hand from after her surgery, so she took that, went to bed and to sleep.
Sunday she rested again most of the day. The pain in her back had lessened during the day but lay back in at night. She took Vicodin again.
The one event we feared going into chemo was nausea. It’s the event chemo patients often talk about, but Sandy avoided it so far. She was given anti-nausea meds on chemo day, then a prescription for Zofran that she’s taking every 12 hours, along with occasional Pepcid Complete tabs and with Compazine as a backup (she hasn’t taken that yet). So far so good.
The effects of chemo are cumulative. This could mean that symptoms will increase in number and severity after the upcoming chemo cycles. We think about this as infrequently as possible, as we could turn out to be wrong.
We got a kick out of a series of Youtube videos by a young (36) woman who’s going through chemo for breast cancer. It doesn’t sound funny and it isn’t always, but she’s going through this with friends and looking for Mr. Right or, better yet, Dr. Right. I don’t recommend that everyone see these videos, but if you’re going through what she and Sandy and many others are going through, they give a sense of community and a model for maintaining humor when possible.
Monday morning. Sandy awoke with a few aches and pains and felt tired, more tired than usual for her. Nevertheless, she donned her work clothes and I drove her through the snow to work. Yes! Snow. Wet, sloppy, our landscape looking more like winter than spring.
I called her midmorning to see how she's doing. She was trying to get the fax machine to work right and said she was otherwise doing okay.
At no time during all of this did Sandy experience any ill effects. In fact, we were home by 3 and went to a party at a friend’s house at 6. She had a good time visiting and I was glad to see it. Home to bed.
Friday was different. She went to work for the whole day, but when she came home for lunch her cheeks were flushed red. She didn’t feel warm all over, just in the face. She took Benadryl and the redness seemed to go away. On Friday evening, her lower back began bothering her. A heating pad helped ease the pain but not eliminate it.
By Saturday morning she was shaking, feeling light-headed. She was tired, which is unusual for her in the morning. She had heartburn. She discovered that she could no longer tolerate her favorite food: salt; it tasted bitter. She was tired most of the day and her back was bothering her more as the day wore on. She watched TV most of the day. By late evening the pain was nearly intolerable for her, so we tried to call the doctor. The mobile phones couldn’t find service. Now what? But within a few minutes service came back well enough to make the call. A doctor eventually came on line to suggest she take a painkiller. We had Vicodin on hand from after her surgery, so she took that, went to bed and to sleep.
Sunday she rested again most of the day. The pain in her back had lessened during the day but lay back in at night. She took Vicodin again.
The one event we feared going into chemo was nausea. It’s the event chemo patients often talk about, but Sandy avoided it so far. She was given anti-nausea meds on chemo day, then a prescription for Zofran that she’s taking every 12 hours, along with occasional Pepcid Complete tabs and with Compazine as a backup (she hasn’t taken that yet). So far so good.
The effects of chemo are cumulative. This could mean that symptoms will increase in number and severity after the upcoming chemo cycles. We think about this as infrequently as possible, as we could turn out to be wrong.
We got a kick out of a series of Youtube videos by a young (36) woman who’s going through chemo for breast cancer. It doesn’t sound funny and it isn’t always, but she’s going through this with friends and looking for Mr. Right or, better yet, Dr. Right. I don’t recommend that everyone see these videos, but if you’re going through what she and Sandy and many others are going through, they give a sense of community and a model for maintaining humor when possible.
Monday morning. Sandy awoke with a few aches and pains and felt tired, more tired than usual for her. Nevertheless, she donned her work clothes and I drove her through the snow to work. Yes! Snow. Wet, sloppy, our landscape looking more like winter than spring.
I called her midmorning to see how she's doing. She was trying to get the fax machine to work right and said she was otherwise doing okay.
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