Its been a few days since the last chemo...and I am sooo sleepy. Not sure how I am gonna stay up to watch Survivor tonight. Its only 5:45 and I want to go to bed.
I am back on track this week...had chemo on Tuesday and radiation everyday this week. Feeling ok other than being extremely sleepy.
Thats it for now!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
I'm here!!
So where to start ... in the past I have been awol in blogging just cuz there hasn't been much going on. Weeellllll this time is a little different...
It all started last week when I started my weekly doses of chemo called Docetaxol (Taxotere). Apparently its not supposed to be as bad as the FEC for nausea and some other symptoms. So going in for this treatment my spirits were high that I would get through it all like the first half. It was a 1.5 hr IV drip through my PIC line and with about 5 minutes remaining I started getting the feeling of a heavy chest. This drug can cause an allergic reactions and one of the symptoms is chest pain so I was immediately given an injection of benadryl which made me soooo sleepy and out of it. The benadryl didn't seem to help the chest discomfort so I was given a shot of Maalox and that seemed to help so I was given the OK to head home. Aside from sleepiness I did good the rest of Tuesday, and then Wednesday and Thursday I was out n about feeling good. About 3am Friday morning I woke with chest pain similar to the chest pain I felt right after chemo on Tuesday. After taking a dose of Maalox and it not going away Aaron and I decided to head to the ER. We got there around 4am and I was brought in immediately to have my vitals taken and then we waited and waited and I was seen by a doctor around 8:30am. Had blood taken and was sent for a chest xray and then waited for my Oncologist Dr. Dingle to come around. When Dr. Dingle arrived he said that from the chest xray he could see that the end of my PIC line was somehow bowing up against my heart. As soon as he pulled the PIC line out about 6cm I instantly felt some relief. Sheeeesh after all this time I KNEW something wasn't right, but nobody would listen to me. I was given another xray and it seemed to be in the right spot and my chest pain had gone away so then we were sent home at around noon which is when the ordeal ended. By this time I was starving, super stressed, and relieved all at the same time. Mom and Dad were there too and ended up driving me back home to Dad's, but on the way home the chest pain came back. To sum up several more hours I had chest pain til the next day... Dad taking blood pressure, temperature, and heart beat checks every few hours. After talking to Dr. Dingle on the phone a few times he prescribed me a med for gastro..something er other...stuff to inhibit the gas in the esophagus. It took about 24 hrs for the chest pain to go away.....basically Saturday night. Feeling perkier I was happy that the pain had subsided and I could finally get a good nights sleep. HOWEVER, I kind of got the feeling when you know you are coming down with something. And when I woke up on Sunday I had the worst upset stomach of my life for the whole day. I am thinking it was a stomach bug and for me ...when I catch a bug its like 10 times worse than a "normal person" not on chemo. So basically it was one of the worst weekends ever but Mom, Dad, and Aaron took good care of me all weekend!! I am truly grateful to have such a good family.
So the weekend rolls into Monday - yesterday. The plan WAS to get the weekly bloodwork done, see Dr. Dingle for a review, go to radiation, ,and then chemo Tuesday.
Well over the weekend it became very apparent that my heartrate was going a lot faster than it should be sitting between 110-120. I think this started sometime in the past 2 weeks... This is definitely a concern and I ended up staying at the Cancer Clinic to see a Cardiologist and had a lung scan and another chest xray performed. To sum up the day (we were there from 8:30am - 4pm) everything turned up clear and from what I am gathering they are attributing the fast heartbeat to the Epirubicin, one of the drugs from the first 3 chemo sessions. I guess it can be one of the side effects?! greeaaat . But in reality I don't think anyone is sure... I am being sent for an Echo cardiogram (if thats the right name!?) on Friday and if that comes back clear I am told that I will keep trucking on my chemo and radiation plan which has all been cancelled this week in light of my heart situation.
Overall I am a bit of an emotional basketcase the past few days. Just trying to regain some sort of normalcy in an "unnormal" situation. Today I went to the mall for an hour and almost had a meltdown in the car because just getting in the car to drive myself somewhere and listen to the tunes was emotional. And then I laid low and cleaned a corner of a room in the house with Mom and felt much better... at least I had control over where to put some odds n ends.
I am sorta relieved that they pushed this weeks chemo back but at the same time I just want to get on with everything and not prolong it. This is a loooong process and I think some emotions are starting to catch up with me... and I need to do the best I can to deal.
Tommorow I meet with the social worker and get my PIC line dressing changed, which is thankfully feeling much better since Friday.
Trucking onward......
It all started last week when I started my weekly doses of chemo called Docetaxol (Taxotere). Apparently its not supposed to be as bad as the FEC for nausea and some other symptoms. So going in for this treatment my spirits were high that I would get through it all like the first half. It was a 1.5 hr IV drip through my PIC line and with about 5 minutes remaining I started getting the feeling of a heavy chest. This drug can cause an allergic reactions and one of the symptoms is chest pain so I was immediately given an injection of benadryl which made me soooo sleepy and out of it. The benadryl didn't seem to help the chest discomfort so I was given a shot of Maalox and that seemed to help so I was given the OK to head home. Aside from sleepiness I did good the rest of Tuesday, and then Wednesday and Thursday I was out n about feeling good. About 3am Friday morning I woke with chest pain similar to the chest pain I felt right after chemo on Tuesday. After taking a dose of Maalox and it not going away Aaron and I decided to head to the ER. We got there around 4am and I was brought in immediately to have my vitals taken and then we waited and waited and I was seen by a doctor around 8:30am. Had blood taken and was sent for a chest xray and then waited for my Oncologist Dr. Dingle to come around. When Dr. Dingle arrived he said that from the chest xray he could see that the end of my PIC line was somehow bowing up against my heart. As soon as he pulled the PIC line out about 6cm I instantly felt some relief. Sheeeesh after all this time I KNEW something wasn't right, but nobody would listen to me. I was given another xray and it seemed to be in the right spot and my chest pain had gone away so then we were sent home at around noon which is when the ordeal ended. By this time I was starving, super stressed, and relieved all at the same time. Mom and Dad were there too and ended up driving me back home to Dad's, but on the way home the chest pain came back. To sum up several more hours I had chest pain til the next day... Dad taking blood pressure, temperature, and heart beat checks every few hours. After talking to Dr. Dingle on the phone a few times he prescribed me a med for gastro..something er other...stuff to inhibit the gas in the esophagus. It took about 24 hrs for the chest pain to go away.....basically Saturday night. Feeling perkier I was happy that the pain had subsided and I could finally get a good nights sleep. HOWEVER, I kind of got the feeling when you know you are coming down with something. And when I woke up on Sunday I had the worst upset stomach of my life for the whole day. I am thinking it was a stomach bug and for me ...when I catch a bug its like 10 times worse than a "normal person" not on chemo. So basically it was one of the worst weekends ever but Mom, Dad, and Aaron took good care of me all weekend!! I am truly grateful to have such a good family.
So the weekend rolls into Monday - yesterday. The plan WAS to get the weekly bloodwork done, see Dr. Dingle for a review, go to radiation, ,and then chemo Tuesday.
Well over the weekend it became very apparent that my heartrate was going a lot faster than it should be sitting between 110-120. I think this started sometime in the past 2 weeks... This is definitely a concern and I ended up staying at the Cancer Clinic to see a Cardiologist and had a lung scan and another chest xray performed. To sum up the day (we were there from 8:30am - 4pm) everything turned up clear and from what I am gathering they are attributing the fast heartbeat to the Epirubicin, one of the drugs from the first 3 chemo sessions. I guess it can be one of the side effects?! greeaaat . But in reality I don't think anyone is sure... I am being sent for an Echo cardiogram (if thats the right name!?) on Friday and if that comes back clear I am told that I will keep trucking on my chemo and radiation plan which has all been cancelled this week in light of my heart situation.
Overall I am a bit of an emotional basketcase the past few days. Just trying to regain some sort of normalcy in an "unnormal" situation. Today I went to the mall for an hour and almost had a meltdown in the car because just getting in the car to drive myself somewhere and listen to the tunes was emotional. And then I laid low and cleaned a corner of a room in the house with Mom and felt much better... at least I had control over where to put some odds n ends.
I am sorta relieved that they pushed this weeks chemo back but at the same time I just want to get on with everything and not prolong it. This is a loooong process and I think some emotions are starting to catch up with me... and I need to do the best I can to deal.
Tommorow I meet with the social worker and get my PIC line dressing changed, which is thankfully feeling much better since Friday.
Trucking onward......
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