I had my last treatment on Thursday morning and we were all running a bit late. My husband and I stopped to get the office staff pastries and the girl at the bakery was the nastiest b*tch walking the face of the earth. The bakery is great but dealing with nastiness like that is not worth it. She acted like we were bothering her giving the place business. Last time I checked thats what pays your check jerk.
After that encounter we headed to the office and the lab 1st for bloods to make sure all was well with receiving the treatment. My hematocrit was low and they wanted to give me Procrit but I have gone this far without is so I said that I would rather skip it if it was OK with the Dr. It was OK with him, thats probably why I am so darn tired right now. Right before the treatment the Dr wanted to see me in the exam room to get a look at the rash and give his verdict on it. He asked all kinds of questions and finally came to the conclusion that I had a form of what my son had, the Coxackie virus. Adults can get it but not necessarily in the same form that the child would get it. Its healing slowly with the cream I am using so he said to continue using it. We agreed that we would stick with Taxotere as the last treatment because we all agreed that the viral rash was just brought about because of my low blood counts and immunosupressed status and not a result of the drug.
I assumed the usual position in my lucky chair and they gave me all my pre-meds while hubby went out to get some lunch before I fell asleep. We ate lunch and then I started to get a pain in my chest. I wasnt sure if it was gas or a reaction from the Taxotere. They stopped the infusion for a few minutes and gave me some TUMS for my stomach then turned it on really slow. I wanted to get it finished no matter how long it took. I fell asleep the last hour or so that it took to infuse and I was soooo tired afterwards I cant even describe. I was unsure if I was going to make it to the appointment with the pain specialist afterwards.
We left the office at 2pm for the appointment with the pain specialist across the street. There was a ton of people in the office and NO WAY I was going to be able to wait around to see this guy. I waited 15 minutes and realized that the people waiting were already waiting over 45 minutes! I told his nurse practitioner that I had to reschedule another day because I just had chemo and needed to get to bed ASAP. She understood and didnt realize why I was an hour and a half late. I told her they had to slow down my infusion due to chest pain and then she got it. Duh, I thought I told her that I was coming straight over from receiving a treatment when I made the appointment. Well, anyway I can wait, I have enough pain medicine.
When I got home I went straight to bed and didnt move from 3pm-8pm that night. I woke up to shower and get back in bed then awoke again at 2am and had a snack of some cookies and milk to settle my stomach and get back to bed. I have been so exhausted after this treatment that I was teasing that they gave me the old stuff from when I 1st started my chemo treatments!
Yesterday I didnt even want to get up to go for my OT at the hospital but I had to because the Taxotere makes me swell quite a bit. Anything to avoid making the lymphedema worse is better than not doing anything at all so I went. When we got home I hopped into bed again exhaused from doing nothing. I fell asleep again until 7pm and my husband had made the kids dinner again, just like the previous night. You know when I dont prepare dinner then I dont feel well at all. I woke up just long enough to help bathe the kids and sit and watch a video with them. After they went to bed I had some ice cream (my dinner) and watermelon, take a shower and get back in bed. I fell asleep until 1-2am and then couldnt get back to sleep until after 3am. I was hurting quite a bit and got up several times to take pain meds but nothing was working. Finally something kicked in and I fell asleep close to 4am and woke up when the kids did. I had a very hard time getting out of bed and my husband had gone to work so I had no choice but to get up. My Mom wasnt coming until after 10:30am and the kids werent waiting. I had to lay down a few times in between getting the kids breakfast and stuff. The poor dogs had to hold it to wait for me to get enough energy up to get outside and walk them. I am so glad that this is the last treatment because I cant do this anymore. I feel like crap after this and I want it to go away as soon as possible. I feel totally useless to everyone and its not a good feeling. My son starts camp on Monday and I have to get him up early to catch the bus. I know he can handle it but I am not sure I can. At least my daughter doesnt start camp until the following week and an hour later then my son does.
I am sorry I didnt have a chance to update until today. I know a lot of people were wondering how I was doing and waiting for me to write. I could be better but hopefully as the days go by and this stuff gets out of my system I will feel much better. I took some pictures at the office while I was hooked up getting my treatment but I am not sure when I am going to be able to post them.
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