Update: One round down, five to go

Hi everyone - Sorry it's taken me so long to check in. It was a rough several days and it took some time to get back in the swing of things. I thought I was relatively prepared, but was surprised by the length of time it took me to get back to normal. Hoping the next go-round will be easier with different expectations.

So, for those of you curious, here's how things have gone down over the past 11 days. On Thursday I checked in at the Oncology and Hematolgy Group and received my first round of chemo. I had taken steroids the day before and will take them the two days following treatment. They made me fidgety and I didn't get much sleep the night before. I met with the medical oncologist, Dr. Castine, as Dr. Miletello was on vacation. I must confess, I had a breakdown in the room waiting for the Dr. to come in. It was becoming quite real that the path I was about to take was going to be a long, not enjoyable one and I think the anxiety got to me. Luckily, David was there to get me through it. Met with Dr. Castine and then he sent me down to the "Chemo Room". If you've never seen one of these, it is a big room with lots of huge, leather recliners. It was very busy, which is quite sad to me.

So, I sit down and my nurse, Paula, gets me setup. The chemo nurses are amazing...so sweet and accomodating. I had put lidocane on my port area to numb it up, so there was no pain when she inserted the needle. She gave me a Benedryl and some anti-nausea meds in pill form before we began. I started off with an IV drip to make sure I was hydrated, then we started on the chemo bags. First up was the Cytoxan, which took about 30 minutes. Then came the Adriamycin. They also call this one the "Red Devil" (nice, huh?). It is dark red and you just know it is bad stuff looking at it. That one took about 45 minutes. Finally, they started the bag of Taxotere. During the treatement, I drank as much water as I could, ate a bit and wrote some thank you notes. I think the Benadryl kicked in about 1 1/2 hours in and I napped a bit. As the treatment went on, there was a metallic taste in my mouth and I got a little woozy. But, other than that, I had no problems. All told, I was in for about 3 hours. David took me home and I took the nausea medicine prescribed and went to sleep. First night, I didn't have any problems and slept well.

Friday morning comes around and I take my 6 AM nausea meds and go right back to sleep. Next thing I know, It's noon and David is back to take me to BR for a shot called Neulasta. I have to go in to the clinic to get it and it is supposed to help re-build my white blood cells. We head to town and my mom meets me at the clinic. She is going to take me back to St. Francisville after the shot and stay with us for the weekend (such a big help!). I go to the chemo room to get the shot and the nurse warns me that it causes "a lot" of bone pain. What the heck does that mean? I honestly couldn't imagine what bone pain felt like (other than the few broken bones I've had). She said that Claritin was supposed to help with that side-effect. OK. Great, more drugs. I take the shot and head back home. Back in bed to sleep another 24 hours!

Saturday rolls around and I pretty much slept all day. The nausea meds (taken every 6 hours as directed), definitly helped with nausea. But, they also knocked me out. This is FINE with me! I was able to get down some crackers and a few bites of cream of wheat over those two days, but nothing substansial. 

Sunday comes and by mid-morning, I start to feel like I can get out of bed. I take a shower and head to the kitchen to sit with my mom. Everyone is very happy to see me up. I'm pretty much in a fog. My head felt like it was full of cotton and I couldn't really speak well. Oh, and the bone pain the nurse warned me about, boy was it there. I can't describe it other than the fact that every bone in my body felt like it was broken and every joint felt like it was swollen. I was walking like I was 90 years old. Mentally, my attitude was taking a turn for the worse as well. I made myself go outside and sit for a while (it was a BEAUTIFUL day), but wasn't able to to much more.

Thankfully, my friend Candice setup a volunteer meal delivery among my friends, and we had dinner delivered Sunday night. The family ate well. My tastebuds were gone and most smells were nauseating, so I wasn't much fun to be around. I went to bed Sunday night hoping that Monday would be better.

Here's the wonderful thing about chemo, it's the gift that keeps giving. Monday I wake up to a headache, stomache pain, fuzzy head and blurred vision. I tried to get up and work some, but there was no way. I laid on the sofa and slept most of the day until the girls came home. At this point, I think I hit a low emotionally. I just couldn't fathom going through this five more times. There didn't seem to be any end in sight. Tuesday, same thing.

Wednesday rolls around and I'm finally starting to fell better. I was able to get a couple of hours of work in, and went for a short walk with David. Maybe the end was in sight! Thursday,  I woke up feeling remarkably better. I had to go in to our local Daniel Clinic to have blood work done first thing in the morning. I was able to get almost a full day of work in. Still a little tired, but nothing compared to earlier in the week.

Friday was a great day. I woke up feeling almost back to my old self and had a great day. The Dr. called with my bloodwork results. Unfortunately, I was in a state of Nadir, which is when your white blood cells are at their low point. My results were:

• white blood cell count: 1.6 (normal 4-10)
• Absolue Neutrophil count: 400 (normal >1000)

This meant that I could not be around crowds of people, had to be vigilant about washing hands, no fresh /raw fruit or vegetables or fresh flowers. They also put me on antibiotics as a preventative. Ugh! Just when you start feeling good, you can't do anything!

I woke up Saturday determined to get back in gear. I took a long walk with the dogs and worked on cleaning our outdoor seating area. I spent the entire day outside (careful not to be in the actual sun) and really enjoyed it. I felt energized and realized that I could do this. I'm hoping that, with a different set of expectations, I won't get as downtrodden as before. Unfortunately, every round will be different, so it may be wishful thinking.

So, that's where I am today. Feeling much better and trying to get strong for the next round. Last night, the girls colored my hair pink. Yes, pink. It should start coming out in the next couple of days, so I figured, why not? :)

Thank you for the cards and notes and food that continues to come in. I honestly don't know what I would do without everyone's support. I leave you with my new "do" (at least for a few days).
Have a great week everyone!!!
Love-
Angie