1st Chemo Treatment Was A Doozy...And the Rumor Mill Was WORSE!

People Never Read The ENTIRE E-mail...panic ensued amongst my friends after rumor had it that my cancer was out of control; I received multiple phone calls from hysterical friends. My response...also posted August 2, 2006

Ahoy to All.....

This is an update.....

1st of all.....EVERYONE STOP THE PANIC!!! I AM FINE!!!

If you are not going to read the entire e-mail carefully....I will stop sending them out!!!!

Yes, they thought they saw something on my liver during an ultrasound. Yes, they did a CT. The CT was NORMAL. They saw a few gallstones, but they are not bugging me, so they get to stay...for now.

I had my 1st chemo treatment yesterday, August 1st. They have me on Adriamycin and Taxol. They premedicated me on Decadron, Kytril & Benadryl. I did fine with the Adriamycin, but unfortunately had a bit of a reaction 10 minutes into the Taxol....chest pressure, flank pain, shortness of breath, so they stopped it and the reaction stopped. They gave me a 2nd dose of pre-medication (I got a total of 100mg of Benadryl!!! Wooohooo!!!) And restarted the Taxol without other problems.

Needless to say, I slept the rest of the day away. I woke up (briefly) for a bowl of soup and more Kytril (anti-nausea, anti-vomiting) and went back to sleep until 0830 this morning. I feel okay. A little nauseated this afternoon, but hopefully will be getting my 2nd medication approved today.

Anybody know of a doctor who will write for medicinal marijuana??? Kidding....at least for now!

Anyway...That is the scoop.

Oh...and my doctor says that I will probably lose my hair in about 3 weeks, so I figure we should have a shearing party around August 17th or 18th. Anybody wanna come help shear me????

Love,
Mel

Wow...the 1st chemotherapy treatment was August 1, 2006...I think I posted this 2 days later...

Ahoy All...

Well, after many spikes in both fever & sugars, my oncologist (cancer doctor) decided to go ahead and start my chemotherapy. My sister-in-law, Cheryl was a sweetie, and came with me. I didn't get a central line because the risk of infection is too great, so they're hoping my veins will last through all 6 chemotherapy sessions.

It didn't start off too promisingly...6 IV attempts before they could get a good one in...I know...I'm a big baby. But...Owwwwww! My nurses were all very nice, they warned me that I might have a reaction to the 1st chemo treatment....ooops...I think I scared them as much as I scared myself. They gave me the pre-chemo meds and I did well. Then, they started the 1st med (I'm going to get 2 meds per treatment, every 3 weeks, 6 treatments total) Adriamycin and it went well. I was getting drowsy from the Benadryl they gave me so I sent Cheryl to lunch since I didn't want her sitting around during the 2 hour part of the treatment. BAD IDEA.

Cheryl had just left for lunch and they had just started the 2nd med, Taxotere. About 10 minutes into it, I started to feel weird. Like REALLY weird. I got my eyes open and saw a nurse standing nearby. Not MY nurse, but hey, who cares! I called her name and told her I was feeling strange...then strange got waaaay stranger. My lips went numb, I suddenly felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest, I couldn't breathe very well and I started getting shooting pains in my kidneys. Needless to say, they stopped the Taxotere and called my doctor right away. I was writhing around in the Barco-Lounger (they have these big chairs that can have their feet propped up that we sit in during chemo) trying to make the pain go away. My doctor came over, took a quick look, ordered more Benadryl and steroids and told them to restart my Taxotere. YIKES!

Well...if anyone is familiar with Benadryl...it will knock a person on their keister if they're a light weight. I may be a chunky ass, but I don't do drink or drugs very well...or maybe I do it too well...because it doesn't take very much to slap me silly. After the 2nd massive dose of Benadryl, I was toast. I hope I wasnt sitting there drooing because I know I was sawing logs pretty hard.

Poor Cheryl. We told her what happened after she left. I think she felt bad about not being there, but I'm kind of glad she wasn't, 'cause I would hate to scare her. It's early days yet. There are scarier things along the way, I'm sure. Anyway...1 down, 5 to go!!! 2nd go-round on August 22....woohoo!!!

My doctor says that I can expect my hair to start falling out between 14 & 21 days after my 1st treatment....so...I have decided that I am going to take the bull by the horns and have my friends and family shear me like a sheep instead of having it trickle off my head like snow. More on that later....you'll get an invite.

Love,
Mel