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