We had a wonderful weekend full of all kinds of Halloween festivities. I felt great all weekend. I'm thinking this week will be a good week, and then I'll start the process over.
For Halloween this year, Lauren and Hope were both Bumblebee's and Josh was an Army man. They looked awesome! I originally thought I would be missing out on / not feeling good for the holidays this year. But I was able to schedule each treatment early enough, that I should be feeling good for each holiday. So by the end of the year, I will have 4 of my 6 chemo treatments done and over with. YAY!
As far as side effects go, I'm pretty much done taking any meds on a daily basis (with the exception of Allpurinol which is to help my kidneys flush the cancer out). I occasionally will take some Tylenol, but other than that I'm pill free. My stomach is totally back to normal. I have started to notice some numbness is my finger tips - kind of like when you come in out of the cold and your hands start to warm up, but your finger tips are a little numb..it feels like that. And I've had some problems with my heart racing when I lay down at night. In fact, the other night I went to bed at 9:30pm and fell right to sleep. I remember having dreams and feeling very restless. I was just tossing and turning and my heart was racing. At one point I remember flopping over and hitting someone right in the head with my elbow (sorry Lar :). After what felt like 12 hours of restless frantic sleep, I looked over at the clock and it was 12:15am. I know some of the chemo meds will cause all kinds of weird side effects, and heart racing can be one of them. I'm going to ask Dr. V next week when I go in for my next chemo if there's something that will help with that, because I wonder if that is part of why I haven't been sleeping so great. I've been running marathons in my sleep...or at least my heart thinks so!:)
Speaking of Dr. V - she called on Friday and said my white blood cell count was back up. So basically that means my immune system is functioning at a normal level. I can be out and resume "normal" activities with some caution. Yay!
She also gave me some info about my next treatment. It will be like so:
Monday 11/8 Appt with Dr. V and labs
Tuesday 11/9 Rituxin (scheduled for 12 hrs, will admit me to hospital if not done in 12 hrs)
Wednesday 11/10 Finish the Rituxin
Thursday 11/11 CHOP Chemo treatment
And if I stay on schedule, I will be feeling better by the 18th which will be wonderful since it's my little Hope's 3rd birthday on November 19th.
Dr. V was very adamant that we get the Rituxin to work this time. That is why she scheduled it for a 12 hour infusion. I am going to take some meds before I get there, plus some more before they start the infusion so hopefully I won't have any bad reactions this time. She said it's a very important part of the treatment, so I'm going to be on my best behavior, and try to just take my medicine like a good girl! :)
HAIR WATCH 2010
So far, I have not lost my hair. I'm so glad I cut it super short instead of just buzzing it right off. I'm on "hair watch" because everything I've read says you lose your hair around days 10-14, and I'm day 12. I'm physically ready with lots of cute hats and a wig, but I think emotionally that will be a surreal day. There's no denying you have cancer when you're rockin a bald look. But do not worry...I plan on rockin that look like no other! :)
You are amazing!
ReplyDeleteI did some reading about Neulasta and bone pain and did some asking around. Talk to Dr. V about Claritin and see what she says. Some patients took it 24 hours before the injection and then another dose 2 hours before and said it helped significantly. Most were like you and didn't think the hard core drugs worked after--just Tylenol and a hot bath. My bubble tub (not a jet tub so no standing water and germs) is always available. Maybe some Ativan or Xanax before you go to sleep? You certainly deserve to get a good nights rest. Have a great week! Shelly