WEll.... I learned a valuable this week......
(and a reminder me and meds)
They don't lie when they (doctors) call it a "medical practise". They give their best shot, hoping for the best result, but can change things totally cause we just aren't a statistic....we are human beings and no 2 DNAs react the same so they tweek, and tweek, until they find the best for you.
So what does all this have to do with my past week.....ummmmm....everything!! Let me start with Chemo (last Friday). After having that mild reaction the chemo before....they tweeked my cocktail this time to give me all the "anti-allergy" meds before we started this 2nd treatment. I was feeling great....they did notice my blood pressure was elevated and my temp jump to 37.7 (.3 under the 38. degree that results in a mandatory hospital stay....whewww...dodged that bullet. and when they checked after the cocktail everything was back to normal (temp and BP)
The next morning (okay....noonish really). I got up and walked into the kitchen and had to grab the stove to stay up. Right out of left field...both my arms were numb and tingling, really light headed with headache and the biggest herd of elephants stomping the middle of my chest. (yup...kinda freaky...first time for everything) It only lasted less then 2 minutes and then I was fine except for feeling "OFF" and random thick sensation up the side of my neck and then a shooting headache. I pretty much sat and did less then normal until the home care nurse came to change the dressing on my PICC line. I told her what had happened and so she took my BP and pulse only to see that the BP was WAY high and that I had a irregular heart beat. So was told (in no uncertain terms) to pack and get the ER. So off we jaunted for yet another 3 hrs stint.
The ER doctor was great....ordered ECG, chest x-rays and full blood work. It all came back clear no indication of it being a heart issue (HUGE sigh of relief!!!!) But he wasn't ready to totally rule out that it my have been Pulmonary Edema that had broken up and filter out with no damage...but if ANYTHING like that happened again "GET YOUR BUTT BACK HERE FAST"
So I have been really tired this week and spent most of it sleeping (except at night..great!!). I had phoned my oncologist to let her know what had happened and so Thursday she called me and told me that it had indeed been a drug reaction and the magnitude of reaction between the first time of this cocktail to this was so HUGELY escalated that she can't give me more or it might kill me next time....dying is not in my plans so.... we had to come up with options...
1) just stop chemo now....not really an option because it really felt cheat. They have a great tradition at the chemo unit I didn't really miss out on...like a rite of passage..."Ringing the Bell" at the chemo unit to celebrate that I had made it thru and won.or....
2) go back to the original cocktail to finish
MY MAMA DIDN'T RAISE ANY QUITTERS.....
Sooo we are gonna do the next 2 with the old stuff.....YIPPEEE...back to the nausea cocktail again!!!! Now the effect of going back to cocktail 1 (having done 6) could boost my chances of heart failure or permanent damage. So I asked my oncologist point blank, what would she do if it was her in my shoes. Lucky for me we were on the same page. She said they will give me everything they have to protect the heart.
I have honestly felt this time of treatment to be just flying by. It never got as bad as I had thought it would so I haven't been bed ridden the whole time. I didn't get much of what I had "planned to do" thru this down time....that didn't happen either. I expected to read (all those you never have time to do), study scriptures and gospel lessons (couldn't get my mind to even concentrate...kept reading the same thing over and just not getting it....argg...chemo brain) and watch old movies...ya...couldn't hold my attention either. So here I sit 3 WEEKS to my last treatment and feel like I have accomplished nothing. I did what I needed to do....rest and focus on healing not the "to do "list....it will be waiting for me when this is all finished.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!