A Visit With Dr. Cutie . . .

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from my oncologist's office wanting to change the time of my appointment today. My immediate response was, what appoitment???? I hadn't been notified!

Well, turns out they probably mailed the notice and either it got hung up in the Christmas mail or it got delivered to the wrong house (our postie delivers at least one envelope to the wrong house twice a month; we usually get mail for the folks north of us). Anyway, we were able to get ourselves together and get down to CancerCare for this morning and had a visit with Dr. Cutie.

It was just a follow up to see how I'm doing with the chemotherapy. All in all, it's going pretty well. However, the radiation oncologist has decided to postpone radiation therapy because of the size and location of the tumor. He wants to wait a while for the chemo to shrink the tumor, then reassess the situation. The problem at the present time is that the tumor is fairly large so they would have to irradiate a pretty big area right around my stomach, and I would probably suffer more serious side effects than what I get now with the chemo.

Dr. Cutie says to consider this not a setback, but a reconsideration of the situation, and probably a good thing.

I will be going for a scan, either a CT or an MRI but likely an MRI, after this round of chemotherapy ends (last treatment is January 12, then I take a one week break and start another round of chemo). This will allow the Eviction Team to have a good look at whether the chemo is giving Charlene any problems. Let's hope it's making her sick as a dog.

I also got a new pain prescription - slow release morphine. I take two pills a day and can take Percoset as well if I need it. I'm hoping this drug will work well. Last week I had a couple of pretty miserable days, painwise, and actually took TWO Percosets at once because one just didn't cut the pain. Dr. Cutie informs me the street value of the morphine drug is $10 to $15 per pill. It's supposed to be good stuff! I guess I'll find out tonight when I take my first dose.

-- Lori

Fourth Chemotherapy Treatment And Other Interesting Stuff . . .

Yesterday's chemo treatment went very much like last week's, and so far I have only had a little nausea to deal with. I should have posted a bit more about the itch last week. It came on again but was very mild and was pretty much gone after a couple of days. Let's hope that this week I don't get any itch at all! (Fat chance!)

That's all I have to say about chemo. I have something much more interesting to talk about.

Those of you who know me well might know that I am and have always been a great lover of horses and have never got over the yearning to own a horse that started when I was just a kid. As young kids, my sister and I did have ponies; ponies are not at all the same thing, especially these particular ponies. They were ex-chuckwagon ponies and were not very friendly or rideable so they scared us half to death. It was a real trial to try to do anything with them, and none of the adults around us seemed interested in helping us learn how to handle the ponies. So we never really got to experience what it was like to have a good, dependable, friendly, rideable horse.

My sister has given me a gift that, even now, I hardly know how to thank her for: she has given me one of her horses.

I would like you all to meet KS Bar Winchester, A.K.A. Charlie Bear and known familiarly as Bear.


He is a young horse, not yet trained for riding, but he's got a lovely, playful disposition and he seems to like me. The first time we met he tried to hug me to death. I got up under his neck to scratch his breast and shoulders and he kind of pinned me under his neck and head and gave me a good squeeze. It was rather startling, but I guess he liked the scratching and didn't want to let me go!

Hope you all are having a good holiday season!

-- Lori

Third Chemotherapy Dose . . .

My third dose of chemotherapy was yesterday afternoon. So far, no nausea or itching. I'm sure the itch will return tomorrow, but we'll just have to wait and see.

The chemotherapy went very well. With the PICC line in place, life is a lot easier beause there are no nurses trying to stick me with needles. I just go get blood taken from the line, they test my blood to make sure it's healthy, then they order up my chemo concoction, hook me up to it and away we go. It takes about an hour and a half, all told, if I get in right away.

I made a major tactical error yesterday. I carry my MP3 player with me so I have something to listen to while I'm being infused. The Old Boot accompanied me yesterday, and he was looking rather bored while we were waiting for the blood test results, so I handed him my MP3 player and turned on some music for him. Big mistake! He wouldn't give it back! That was okay, though - it kept him amused and out of trouble, and I had some tatting with me to keep me amused. However, in future I must remember not to offer him the MP3 player if I want to use it myself.

I went out for a wee walk this morning to see what the weather was like. What a change from the last few days! This morning -18 feels quite balmy compared to what we have been having! Iknow it isn't going to stick around long, but at least we are having a small break from the deep freeze.

I don't have much else to say. Things are moving along slowly, and I have good days and not-so-good days. Still trying to put on some weight, still trying to eat as much as I can, which some days is not much. I am still waiting to hear when the radiation will begin and I expect it will be around the end of January when I start the second round of chemotherapy.

Have yourselves a good day!

-- Lori

Itchy Again . . .

Well, the itch is back again; so far the rash isn't too bad. I believe the rash gets worse when I scratch (That's kind of a "well, duh" statement, ain't it?) so I am using the immense powers of my mind to drive the itch away and to keep me from scratching. I tell myself there is no itch; therefore, there is no need to scratch.

Yeah, right. What I'm really doing is going nearly crazy keeping my hands off my itchy spots. What I would like to do would be to get some tranquilizers and go curl up in a corner and sleep for three days or so until the itch subsides.

Sigh!

-- Lori

Chemotherapy - Week 3, Session 2 . . .

Yesterday was my second chemotherapy session, and it went much, much better than last week.

I now have a PICC in my left arm above my elbow. For those who don't know what a PICC is, it's a permanent line that goes into a vein in the arm, then follows the vein up and into the main vein leading to the heart. Last week, they tried three times and were unsuccessful at putting one in; this week it went in easy as pie. What this means for me is that I no longer have to have nurses poking away at my eeny weeny veins every time they have to draw blood or give me a chemo treatment (or any other kind of IV, for that matter).

The only negatives to having a PICC is that I have to keep it dry so I can't take any hydrotherapy (hot baths). I have to make do with showers and wear a plastic sleeve thingy over the PICC to keep it dry. A minor inconvenience to be sure.

My blood count was much better this week; much, much better! So I was able to have my second chemotherapy treatment. With the PICC in, they were able to give me the entire treatment in half an hour as opposed to a whole hour. Since the chemo drug goes into the large heart vein where there is lots of blood flow, it gets diluted very quickly. In the small arm veins, they have to slow the flow way down because there is less blood flow and the chemo drug can actually burn the vein walls.

So far there have been no side effects to the chemo treatment. I am not the least bit nauseated or itchy. Last time the itch showed up a couple of days after the chemo, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't come back. The rash has just nicely cleared up.

During this bitterly cold spell, I am thinking of all of you that have to get out of bed in the dark early morning hours, bundle up into warm winter clothing, warm up your cars and wend your way to work, hoping that there will be no stalled cars or accidents blocking your paths. I don't have to do that, being on medical leave; but I'd sure rather be doing that than what I am doing. Count your blessings, folks.

On the upside of the cold spell, my sister bought me a present for which I am very grateful: red wool, cotton lined one-piece long johns with a button flap in the back. Man, they are so warm and cozy. And sexy, too! She also bought me a set of white wool two piece long underwear, much more appropriate for medical visits. Even when I have to leave the house I can be well layered in clothing and stay nice and warm. This is important since I have almost no body fat to keep me warm and I get chilled right to the bone.

Here's hoping the cold will break soon.

My next chemo appointment is on December 22; I know most of you will be off for the Xmas break, but I will update my blog and let you know what's going on right through the break.

Have a peaceful holiday season!

-- Lori

Chemotherapy - Week 2 . . .

Monday was supposed to be my second chemotherapy session, but things have gone awry.

This is a long entry, folks, so get yourselves a fresh cuppa and prepare to be enthralled by my tale of things medical.

First off, I have to backtrack a bit and update what happened after the first chemo session. I had written that I had no nausea or other side effects from the first session, and I didn't have any until Thursday morning when I woke up with the realization that an old enemy had returned - ITCH! I was itchy! Really itchy, particularly around my neck and shoulders at first, then moving down all across my back and my front, stopping at my hips. A quick look in the mirror showed that I had a rash everywhere I was itchy. Okay, gotta check the fact sheet for the chemo drug. Yup, there it is - rash, with or without itch. My rash looked sort of like a measles rash. Personally, I would have been happier with nausea rather than an itchy rash.

Thursday night, the second side effect showed up - FEVER. Fortunately, the fever hovered between 37 C (normal) and just a touch over 38 C, and was usually right around 37.5 C, not terribly hard to deal with. I had been told that if I developed a fever of over 38 C that lasted for over an hour, I likely had the start of an infection - something that should be looked at right away - but my fever never lasted above 38 C for more than about half an hour. On Friday, I talked to my oncologist's nurse and explained what was going on, and she said the fever was very likely caused by the chemo drug itself. Oh lovely. By Saturday night, the fever had disappeared.

So Monday rolls around. I have a full schedule for Monday and have to be at CancerCare for 10:30 AM for a CT simulation, a step in getting me ready for radiation therapy. It was really simple and painless EXCEPT for the tattooing! I wasn't expecting to be tattooed in hospital, but I was. What they do in a CT simulation is set you up on the CT bed the way you will be set up on the radiation therapy bed then run a few tests to line you up, mark all the settings on the bed (how high your legs are elevated, whether your arms are above your head, etc., then they tattoo little green dots on you. I now have three green dots down my front and two green dots on each side which they will use to line me up on the radiotherapy bed. These are permanent tattoos, but I am told they will fade with time. Oh, joy.

Next, on we go to the third floor chemotherapy area to have the PICC line put in. I had a PICC put in in hospital; it took the IV nurse one try and it was almost a painless procedure, so I'm expecting an easy, 1-2-3-done experience. What do I get? A hard, "1 try, 2 tries, 3 tries and we still can't get the PICC in" experience! ARGH! This was pretty painful, too, because I had lie still in a not too comfortable position while nurses jabbed me trying to thread guide wires into my arm veins (they were taking turns, but still!). And I had to hear the comments about how tiny and rolly my veins are. Yeah, I know that, that's why I'm supposed to have this PICC put in!

After an hour, they gave up. They are going to try again this coming Monday to see if they can get one installed. If not, they are suggesting I have a port put in. A port is a doohickey that goes near your collarbone and feeds directly in the vein of your heart, but it has to be put in by a surgeon so it takes three to four weeks to get one put in. I actually think a port sounds like a better option for me in the long run because it requires less intensive medical maintenance, but we'll see if they can PICC me on Monday.

After all this, we finally get down to the last task of the day - chemotherapy. Bad news - my leukocytes are too low so they can't give me the chemotherapy. Leukocytes are your white blood cells that fight infection, and chemotherapy drugs tend to kill the leukocytes, leaving the patient very vulnerable to infections of all kinds. Some other blood components are also low, so they scheduled me to go back on Tuesday for some IV therapy.

Yesterday, I was at CancerCare from 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM and spent all of the intervening time having stuff dripped into me. Not a bad way to spend the day if you're prepared for it, and I thought I was. I had some tatting with me, my MP3 player, and a book. First of all, I couldn't tat because they put the IV line into the back of my left hand, making it useless. Secondly, my MP3 player battery was totally dead, even though I had checked it the night before. This is a new MP3 player; I think I may have accidentally turned it on sticking it in my purse. Grrr. Thirdly, the book I thought I had in my purse got left on my bed. So I amused myself with ancient copies of National Geographic and Reader's Digest.

Hopefully my next chemo session will happen this coming Monday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

So that's what's going on with me. Hope all of you are having a much better time than I've been having!

-- Lori

First Chemotherapy Treatment . . .

The first chemotherapy treatment is over and done, and I feel fine.

The chemotherapy itself was not difficult. Basically, I went to the third floor of CancerCare and checked in. Then a nurse came to escort me to a treatment room (there were four stations in the room I was in) where I sat in a recliner and the nurse put in an IV line. For me, that's the most trying part because I have eeny weeny veins and nurses usually end up poking around for a vein. Most uncomfortable. It's actually rather funny what nurses will do to try to get a vein. My nurse yesterday wrapped my arm in a warm blanket, then rubbed and slapped the inner arm until she finally got a vein about halfway between my wrist and elbow. It took about five minutes!

The nurse told me what to expect when the chemical (gemcitibine) hit my system, made sure I was cozy and warm, and then went to get my drugs. She gave me two anti-nausea tablets, then started the IV.

For about 45 minutes, I just sat there listening to music on my MP3 player and relaxed. I had taken my tatting with me, but because of where they placed the IV, I couldn't move my left arm and therefore couldn't do anything but sit quietly.

After the chemical had all dripped into me, I was disconnected and sent home. Easy. I was rather surprised that there was seemingly no effect from the gemcitibine - no funny taste in my mouth, no feelings of dizziness or nausea or anything else.

Next Monday I will be going in for my second treatment and at that time they will also install a PICC line so I won't have to be poked and prodded every time they need to draw blood or infuse me with gemcitibine. Here is a description, better than I can describe it:

A PICC is a long, thin, flexible tube known as a catheter. It is inserted into one of the large veins of the arm near the bend of the elbow. It is then slid into the vein until the tip sits in a large vein just above the heart.

The space in the middle of the tube is called the lumen. Sometimes the tube has two or three lumens (known as double or triple lumen). This allows different treatments to be given at the same time. At the end of the tube outside the body, each lumen has a special cap, to which a drip line or syringe can be attached. Sometimes there is a clamp to keep the tube closed when it is not in use.

I had one of these lines while I was in the hospital and it sure made life easier. No more poking around for veins, just open up one of the lines and draw blood or insert an IV.

After the treatment, The Old Boot took me home. I was exhausted and had been feeling really tired since Sunday, so I had a nap when I got home and slept really well for a couple of hours. I took another anti-nausea pill even though I wasn't feeling sick - Dr. Cutie said to take them for about a day after each treatment regardless of how I felt.

Anyway, today I feel bright and energetic, so I'm going to try to catch up on some housework. Doesn't that sound like fun.

-- Lori

Hang Onto Your Hats, Folks, Cuz Here We Go!

First Chemo session tomorrow at noon.

Wish me luck!

-- Lori