Steroids wake me up at night! It happened last Wednesday and now it's happened again. I am wide awake at 3 am!!! The day before, the day of, and the day after chemo, I take Decadron--a steroid--2 pills in the am and 2 pills at dinner. I had trouble falling asleep Tuesday nights around midnight. Then, I was up at 1:00 for a bathroom break, then wide awake at 3am. Tossed and turned and tried to fall back asleep for about an hour. Got out of bed at 4:15 and finished reading 'The Shack'. What a great book--have to revisit it again, though--way too much thinking involved.
So this past week was interesting.
Chemo on Wednesday, May 20th. 9:15-2:30. Went home and planted flowers with Dave. Ate dinner at home on our 19th wedding anniversary, and then went to the concert that the girls were in.
Thursday, May 21. Feeling very energetic all day, started to get tired at night. Was able to take Ali for her knee mri and dropped off music for the accompanyist for Cassie's AllState solo and bring the girls to physical therapy at 7/7:15.
Friday, May 22. Girls were off. Less energetic, pretty nauseous all day. Went for rehydration at 2:15 and didn't get out until 5. Felt a bit better then and went to pick up my new wig afterward. Ali headed out to Steff's grandma's for the night.
Saturday, May 23. Dave brought Ali, Mary and Steff out to Calverton to lay flags on the gravesites of soldiers for 'Operation SOS' (a club that Ali belongs to in school). I was feeling pretty tired and had a wicked headache and nausea. After they returned home, Ali, Cassie, Steff and Dave and I headed for his sister, Kim's, house. Dave took the girls to the air show and I stayed back with his parents to help prep for the barbeque. I felt somewhat productive, cutting tomatoes, onions, cheese. Then around 4 pm, we ate--red meat has never tasted sooooo good before! I went to lay down after that and woke up around 7. I had a good 3 hours of feeling quite wonderful, and then the fatigue, headache, and nausea kicked back in. It was a rough drive home.
Sunday, May 24. Slept most of the day away with a headache and nausea. It's amazing how much I can sleep! and then sleep some more. Found out today that Blue Gatorade is KEY! We went over to Debbie and Jay's (neighbors of Jeff and Theresa's) for a barbeque/dinner around 6. Cassie's new 'boy' interest joined us. He followed us there in his car, so he could head straight home afterward, since he lives halfway between us and them. He was a good sport about meeting all of us for the first time, on such a huge scale of people. It turns out that he already knows my brother in law, Jeff, and our friend Tom, because his dad worked for the same company as they do. Pretty small world. Oh, and Dave also fit him and his sister for shoes when they were younger. Only issue is that he's 19 and she's only 16. We left around 10 and I had a great night sleep.
Monday, May 25. Slept most of the day away with a headache, and nausea. I was able to get little things done on a small scale: laundry, bathtub cleaning. Each time I would finish a project, I would lay down for a while. We grilled up some burgers for dinner (Cassie went to Nikole's for a BBQ) and sat outside for the first time this season. I was feeling a bit blue, beginning to wonder if I would have any 'feeling somewhat good days', wondering how to make it through the next 8 weeks of treatment. Will the toxins gradually build up and I'll feel worse???
Tuesday, May 26. Began steroid again, in preparation for chemo on Weds. What a great, productive day I had. Steroids are wonderful...during the day that is! I was able to get ironing done without having to take a nap! I got bills paid, finished up laundry, went to Sam's and Stop and Shop, picked up a present for my mother-in-law at Kohl's and went to a parent meeting for Ali's class trip this weekend. Then, at 7, we all went to my in-laws for my mother-in-law's birthday party. Bed at 11, wide awake at 3 am again!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Ali's Junior Prom
The night before Cassie's Sweet 16, Ali had her Junior Prom. She was one of the nominees for Homecoming Court, which was such an honor out of 700+ students, she was one of 6 girls to be nominated!
Above are some pictures of her all dressed up for the evening. Click on the picture to see a larger image.
New Treatment Course
Since the Taxotere, was so taxing on my digestive tract, the oncologist has changed up the course of my chemo. I will be going every week for the next nine weeks, instead of once every three weeks. The dosage of Taxotere will be lowered and the Cytoxin is changed to Carboplatin. I went yesterday for treatment and I'm feeling pretty well today. Just a slight headache and some intestinal grumbling. And water tastes weird again! This is the worst part for me as I am usually a big water drinker and I need to keep hydrated. I set an appointment for tomorrow to get rehydrated, anticipating that first weekend where I began hallucinating from dehydration from my first chemo. We'll see how it goes.
I had a good week and a half of feeling absolutely normal! I hope that the lowered doses will keep me on a more even keel--will I feel slighly lousy all the time, getting worse every week as the drugs build up in my system over the 9 weeks? Only time will tell...
Cassie's Sweet 16 went very well...tons of dancing, good food, and great company. Thanks to family help, we had invitations made by my sister-in-law Laura; the video montage made by my brother-in-law Jeff and my niece Samantha; my sister-in-law Kim brought Cassie to get her hair, makeup and nails done. We had a great candle lighting ceremony with a gorgeous sandcastle made by our friend Kim (see picture above).
Monday, May 11, 2009
Complications
Tuesday morning-May 5th, I woke up with lower abdominal cramping. I had a bit of that Saturday morning, so I was thinking that maybe I was getting dehydrated again. After my second trip to the bathroom in a mere half hour, I looked down to a toilet full of bloody diarrhea. After the 3rd and 4th time over the next hour, I figured it was time to call the oncologist's office. The nurse practitioner in charge told me to go to the emergency room. I opted for Mather Hospital, knowing that most of the oncologists have privileges there.
My mom brought me as Dave was alone in the store that day. They put me in a private ER room, which was kind of nice. It even had a T.V. and one of the nurses went right off to get my mom a chair to sit it. They did a CT scan and found nothing in the intestines; They DID find a lesion on my pancreas though and told me they would follow it up with an MRI. They admitted me at 3:30 that afternoon. I got into an actual room at 10:00 pm.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009. Besides bloodwork, blood pressure, and temperature, no tests were done at all... except for a test for C-Def, e-coli, salmonella, and other intestinal type issues (some kind of super-bug). The diarrhea continues all day and they have plenty of samples to work with. All the tests come back negative.
Thursday, May 7, 2009. Diarrhea continues and the blood is back...ugh. Today, I'm on a liquids-only diet to get ready for a colonoscopy tomorrow. This is really no fun at all. I'm beginning to get quite sore from all this bathroom going. They take me for the MRI around 3pm. Then, when I return, they start me on te prep for the colonoscopy which will be done on Friday. The prep involves a 4 liter (about a gallon) jug of a clear, liquid that foams when you pour it into a glass. It tastes a bit like the bottom of a margherita--salty and a bit sweet. Not bad for a sip, but a whole gallon? ALSO...how much more can they really expect to get out of me????!!!! After drinking a quarter of this jug, I head, yet again to the bathroom. 20 minutes later...off to the bathroom again...now it's clear liquid coming out, but I still have 3/4 of a jug to polish off. My friend, Jen visits as I guzzle down until I'm halfway through. After she leaves, I realize I just can't take any more of this torture down below. I retreat to my bed and cry like a baby. The nurse comes in and I tell her how sore I am. She gets me Desitin and it works great...helps to cry like a baby! She tells me to take a break from drinking and I do. About an hour later, I'm ready to try again. I drink another quarter and she tells me I can stop because now she's going to bring me 4 pills that will help me go!!! I ask if she's kidding and she produces 4 tiny hot pink pills. I'm up every hour, rushing to unplug Jose (my iv pole) from the wall, and running to the bathroom. Oh joy!
Friday, May 8, 2009. The nurse comes in around 7 am and hesitatingly informs me that my colonoscopy is scheduled for 2 pm. One of the onologists comes in and I ask her results of the MRI. She says the lesion on the pancreas looks like a cyst and I'll have to follow up in 3 months to make sure it's unchanged. She also says that the chances of me having breast and pancreatic cancer would put me in the World Book of Records-it would be that rare. Whew. Around 10 am, I get my first roommate, AnnMarie. 2pm rolls around and I go for my colonoscopy, which they knock you out for. Best sleep I've had in days! They got halfway into the intestines and had to stop because my intestines are twisted. Now, I have to go as an outpatient to finish by them doing a virtual colonoscopy...whatever that may be! The only thing they find are some internal hemherroids. They tell me to eat a high fiber diet, yet according to the oncologist instructions, when you have diarrhea, you shouldn't eat high fiber! Go figure.
Saturday, May 9, 2009. After clearance from the gastro and onco docs I'm ready to go home at 11 am. Yippee. Dave and I do some mothers day shopping and then I'm home resting for the remainder of the day.
Sunday, May 10, 2009. Happy Mother's Day! It was a gorgeous sunny day. Cassie had a soccer game and then we were off to Marianna's Baptism followed by a luncheon at the Chinese Buffet. I felt wonderfully normal and energetic until about 5 pm and then I had the sudden need to go rest. Cassie and I headed home and took some pics of her in her Sweet 16 gear. We uploaded the pics onto Sam's Club website and ordered a poster for her friends to sign.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
CHEMO SUCKS and then you start to feel better!
Okey Dokey...Here goes. It is now Sunday, May 3rd. I feel as though I have lost a couple of days--they're kind of a blur in my mind. I finally feel up to sitting and jotting down some ideas about how the first treatment went.
Wednesday, April 29th: Arrived at oncology office at 9:15--had taken steroids for the past 24 hours to offset any kind of reaction to the Taxotere they would give me later. After doing a blood count (finger stick) and adjusting all the meds they would give according to the blood counts, they brought me in to the chemotherapy area. There are about 8 rooms, each with reclining chairs and regular straight-back chairs (for those poor suckers who don't get the luxury of receiving chemo in a comfy chair). The rooms have anywhere from 1-4 recliners, in case you want to make it a 'party atmosphere' with the other chemo patients :) Dave and I picked a private room for the first time--it even had a t.v.
Barbara, one of the nurses, started the i.v. line--I chose not to get a port, since I will have only 4 treatments. She put on bags of: Pepcid, Benedryl, and another steroid. Each of these dripped separately and then reverted back to the regular sodium cl. drip. Then, around noon they began the Taxotere. With Taxotere, they check on you every 15 minutes. Well, about 30 minutes in, I started having difficulty swallowing--it would take me a good 10 seconds or more to get my throat muscles to figure out how to swallow. I told the nurse and she stopped the drip, consulted with another nurse, and went to get more Benedryl and another steroid, and the doctor. Less than 10 minutes later, I could swallow with no problem at all. So they started the drip again--very slowly this time! It took about 2 1/2 hours for this bag to finish. Thanks to Benedryl, I slept through most of it. Last came the Cytoxen, which only took about an hour to dispense. We left around 4 p.m.!
I felt pretty good the rest of the evening, but got a bit achy around bedtime. No nausea, just a headache. Tylenol worked just fine.
Thursday, April 30, 2009: Woke up, wide awake at 5:30 a.m., not quite sure what to do with myself. I usually don't get up for school until 6:45, so this was weird for me. I guessed it was the effects of the steroids. I decided, as long as I was feeling well, I might as well get things accomplished. So I got ready, took Cassie to school, and went up to my own school--arriving at 7:55! I got 'green sheets' for photocopying next fall's packets that I brought home to keep me occupied. I got paperwork together from the doctor that had to go to human resources--and went to h.r. to drop those off. I went over to do my banking, and then headed to Home Depot to pick up contact paper. Next, I was off to Estelle's to pick up Ali's prom dress and then it was over to Toyota and a free car wash. This was all done before noon. When I got home at noon, I was officially tired. I slept, and then started feeling kinda lousy. My mom took me to go get my Neulasta shot at 3:30, and I spent the rest of the evening laying around drinking tons of water.
Friday, May 1, 2009: Woke up, bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:30 AGAIN. This time....after a restless night's sleep. I filled up my Bubba Keg and tried to drink water like I did the day before, but my tongue was so sore. There was nothing on it that I could see, but it hurt. I still kept at the water though. My appetite was definitely starting to wane, and I ate sporadically throughout the day, because I knew I had to. I kept drinking water--it was starting to taste weird though. I also noticed that my tongue was white and fuzzy feeling. Felt a bit more nauseaus all day long, than I had the day before. More of a headache and overall achiness too, oh yeah--and some diarreah (wahoo).
Saturday, May 2, 2009: A nightmarish delusional type of day. I woke up feeling a cross between: a hangover, getting in a car accident, having pneumonia, having a stomach virus, and being on a dizzy ride at an amusement park with a whopping headache. I think that about covers it. I called the oncologists office around 10:30, and they told me to take Immodium (which, I must say, is a great drug), and come in Sunday morning for rehydration. Then I tried downing some water, but it tasted like I was drinking oil. I couldn't feel it on my tongue--neither could I feel hot or cold on my tongue. I kept getting cramps in my lower stomach, and I would go from this weird awake state to a not so restful sleep state. The last thing I remember from Saturday night was brushing my teeth and watching them move around in my mouth. I KNEW, it wasn't really happening, but it looked so weird in the mirror--kinda like a bad Ambien trip. I held my nose and downed some water and tylenol, and went to bed. I slept off and on, waking with lower abdominal cramps and achiness.
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009: The hour ticked by so slowly as I waited to head out to the oncologists office to get rehydrated--every muscle hurt--my legs were wobbling as I was walking to the car. Dave stopped and got me a decaf tea and a roll at 7-11, which I sipped and picked at on the way. We got there at 8:30 sharp, and after a blood count (which was fine), they got me hooked up right away. Within a half hour, I konked out into a somewhat comfortable sleep. Two hours later we were done--my legs were stronger, and I felt human again. Unbelievable what a little rehydration can do for you. The nurse practitioner said for my next treatment, to make an appointment 2 days afterward to come in for rehydration so we can avoid this horror show. I will be taking them up on that offer. Once home, I watched the kids and Dave play wii. Then Dave made me a couple of eggs over rice (exactly what I wanted--I have never wanted that before--go figure). I slept for a couple of hours--in a nice deep comfortable sleep and woke up soaking wet, but feeling great. Now it's about 3:30 Sunday afternoon, and I've had all the energy to actually sit up and write this! Definitely feeling better; although a bit tired now--guess I'll go rest.
Oh, yeah...they gave me a prescription for 'miracle mouthwash'. It's supposed to work wonders on the tongue and throat of chemo patients. Looking forward to trying it out :)
Wednesday, April 29th: Arrived at oncology office at 9:15--had taken steroids for the past 24 hours to offset any kind of reaction to the Taxotere they would give me later. After doing a blood count (finger stick) and adjusting all the meds they would give according to the blood counts, they brought me in to the chemotherapy area. There are about 8 rooms, each with reclining chairs and regular straight-back chairs (for those poor suckers who don't get the luxury of receiving chemo in a comfy chair). The rooms have anywhere from 1-4 recliners, in case you want to make it a 'party atmosphere' with the other chemo patients :) Dave and I picked a private room for the first time--it even had a t.v.
Barbara, one of the nurses, started the i.v. line--I chose not to get a port, since I will have only 4 treatments. She put on bags of: Pepcid, Benedryl, and another steroid. Each of these dripped separately and then reverted back to the regular sodium cl. drip. Then, around noon they began the Taxotere. With Taxotere, they check on you every 15 minutes. Well, about 30 minutes in, I started having difficulty swallowing--it would take me a good 10 seconds or more to get my throat muscles to figure out how to swallow. I told the nurse and she stopped the drip, consulted with another nurse, and went to get more Benedryl and another steroid, and the doctor. Less than 10 minutes later, I could swallow with no problem at all. So they started the drip again--very slowly this time! It took about 2 1/2 hours for this bag to finish. Thanks to Benedryl, I slept through most of it. Last came the Cytoxen, which only took about an hour to dispense. We left around 4 p.m.!
I felt pretty good the rest of the evening, but got a bit achy around bedtime. No nausea, just a headache. Tylenol worked just fine.
Thursday, April 30, 2009: Woke up, wide awake at 5:30 a.m., not quite sure what to do with myself. I usually don't get up for school until 6:45, so this was weird for me. I guessed it was the effects of the steroids. I decided, as long as I was feeling well, I might as well get things accomplished. So I got ready, took Cassie to school, and went up to my own school--arriving at 7:55! I got 'green sheets' for photocopying next fall's packets that I brought home to keep me occupied. I got paperwork together from the doctor that had to go to human resources--and went to h.r. to drop those off. I went over to do my banking, and then headed to Home Depot to pick up contact paper. Next, I was off to Estelle's to pick up Ali's prom dress and then it was over to Toyota and a free car wash. This was all done before noon. When I got home at noon, I was officially tired. I slept, and then started feeling kinda lousy. My mom took me to go get my Neulasta shot at 3:30, and I spent the rest of the evening laying around drinking tons of water.
Friday, May 1, 2009: Woke up, bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:30 AGAIN. This time....after a restless night's sleep. I filled up my Bubba Keg and tried to drink water like I did the day before, but my tongue was so sore. There was nothing on it that I could see, but it hurt. I still kept at the water though. My appetite was definitely starting to wane, and I ate sporadically throughout the day, because I knew I had to. I kept drinking water--it was starting to taste weird though. I also noticed that my tongue was white and fuzzy feeling. Felt a bit more nauseaus all day long, than I had the day before. More of a headache and overall achiness too, oh yeah--and some diarreah (wahoo).
Saturday, May 2, 2009: A nightmarish delusional type of day. I woke up feeling a cross between: a hangover, getting in a car accident, having pneumonia, having a stomach virus, and being on a dizzy ride at an amusement park with a whopping headache. I think that about covers it. I called the oncologists office around 10:30, and they told me to take Immodium (which, I must say, is a great drug), and come in Sunday morning for rehydration. Then I tried downing some water, but it tasted like I was drinking oil. I couldn't feel it on my tongue--neither could I feel hot or cold on my tongue. I kept getting cramps in my lower stomach, and I would go from this weird awake state to a not so restful sleep state. The last thing I remember from Saturday night was brushing my teeth and watching them move around in my mouth. I KNEW, it wasn't really happening, but it looked so weird in the mirror--kinda like a bad Ambien trip. I held my nose and downed some water and tylenol, and went to bed. I slept off and on, waking with lower abdominal cramps and achiness.
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009: The hour ticked by so slowly as I waited to head out to the oncologists office to get rehydrated--every muscle hurt--my legs were wobbling as I was walking to the car. Dave stopped and got me a decaf tea and a roll at 7-11, which I sipped and picked at on the way. We got there at 8:30 sharp, and after a blood count (which was fine), they got me hooked up right away. Within a half hour, I konked out into a somewhat comfortable sleep. Two hours later we were done--my legs were stronger, and I felt human again. Unbelievable what a little rehydration can do for you. The nurse practitioner said for my next treatment, to make an appointment 2 days afterward to come in for rehydration so we can avoid this horror show. I will be taking them up on that offer. Once home, I watched the kids and Dave play wii. Then Dave made me a couple of eggs over rice (exactly what I wanted--I have never wanted that before--go figure). I slept for a couple of hours--in a nice deep comfortable sleep and woke up soaking wet, but feeling great. Now it's about 3:30 Sunday afternoon, and I've had all the energy to actually sit up and write this! Definitely feeling better; although a bit tired now--guess I'll go rest.
Oh, yeah...they gave me a prescription for 'miracle mouthwash'. It's supposed to work wonders on the tongue and throat of chemo patients. Looking forward to trying it out :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
