Chemo

Lovely Readers,

I thought I would take a quick moment to update my blog this morning before I begin my first day of chemo. It's around 6:30 a.m. right now and I'm feeling pretty good.

Yesterday, Friday (April 30th), was surgery day and I got my hickman placed. I was very nervous about the bleeding risks because of my low blood counts but I didn't have much bleeding during the procedure and only had a limited amount of bleeding after. I applied pressure afterwards and we have lots of gauze to help with the clotting process. I was pretty sore for most of the day and needed a few doses of pain meds to help with the pain. Other than that, I spent the day resting and setting up my hospital room. My mom walked over to Noodles & Company for dinner and got me my favorite, Mac & Cheese. I slept pretty well through the night.

*(Day -10) Today, Saturday (May 1st), I'm feeling better. Later this morning I'm getting a few transfusions so I'll probably be drowsy most of the day because they always give me benedryl by IV (along with a few other pre-meds) as a precaution. We started my first day of chemo around 10 a.m. I haven't had any problems yet except for a little bit of bleeding. I was able to eat a little bit of dinner but I can already feel myself losing my appetite. So far I'm not having any extreme pain and I'm feeling pretty stable. I slept most of the day because they keep giving me benedryl every four hours and it keeps putting me to sleep. I've been out of bed twice so far today and I'm planning to take a shower after I finish blogging. I'm thankful everything is running pretty smoothly so far (knock on wood).

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*(Day -9) Today, Sunday (May 2nd), was a good day. I got a platelet transfusion this morning around 9 a.m. and then I started my chemo at 10 a.m. I slept most of the morning because of the benedryl but I was able to get up and eat a pretty good lunch. I spent the afternoon napping and watching TV and managed to eat most of my dinner. Luckily, I haven't had a fever yet which is one of the most common effects in the first few days of chemo. One of my doctors said only about 1 in 100 don't get a fever so I'm thankful for that so far. I did have a bit of high blood pressure but they put me on a medication to decrease it and it seems to be getting better. It was a pretty uneventful day and I hope my days stay that way.

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*(Day -8) Yesterday, Monday (May 3rd), was my toughest day so far. I had my third dose of a chemo drug called Campath. The past few days I had a little bit of a rash on my cheeks due to the medicine but after my third dose I got really bad hives all over my body. My skin puffed up and I was having trouble breathing. They quickly gave me some medicine to get the swelling to go away and I was put on oxygen for awhile. My hives kept coming back so I had to keep getting medicine throughout the night. It was my first scare since starting chemo so I freaked out a bit. The doctors had originally planned to give me Campath for two more days but because of my reaction, they decided not to give me any more. They are going to continue with the other chemo meds, though. They keep assuring me that it won't effect the outcome of my transplant. I hope they're right.

*(Day -7) Today, Tuesday (May 4th), was much better than yesterday. My hives are gone and they stopped the Campath. I started another chemo drug and I didn't have any reaction to it. I'm starting to get a few mouth sores, which is common. I still haven't had a fever and my blood pressure has been pretty normal all day. The drug I got today is the one that causes hair loss so now I have to wait a week or two to see if my hair falls out or not. I also got to move to a bigger room today because one opened up and the neighbor next to my first room had been screaming his little head off. My new room is much bigger and nicer. I'm now officially one week away from transplant and the days seem to be going by really fast. I'm starting a new drug tomorrow so I'm hoping I don't have any problems with that one because I have to take it for the remainder of chemo.

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(Day -6) Yesterday, Wednesday (May 5th), was another tough day. I started a new chemo drug in the morning and got pretty nauseous from it. Thankfully I only threw up once and was then able to eat a meal later in the day. I'm trying to eat as much as possible because the longer I eat, the longer I can hold off having to do IV nutrition. If I'm going to be filling my body with calories, I at least want to be able to taste it and enjoy it. My mouth sores are a pain but getting better. Overall, I was just really exhausted all day but still managed to do my exercises/ stretches and get out of bed. I'm still getting up to shower every day and I'm pretty steady on my feet which is a huge plus.

*(Day -5) Today, Thursday (May 6th), was an okay day. I haven't thrown up today but I was pretty nauseous this morning. They gave me this patch thing to stick behind my ear that is supposed to help with nausea so we'll see how that goes. I slept through chemo and my platelet transfusion but got up this afternoon to eat lunch and move around. The physical therapist came by to visit and she brought peddles for me to use to work out my legs and arms. I worked out for awhile and she seemed to be impressed with my strength. It's really hard to keep your muscles strong when you can't even leave a hospital room. I'm getting more exhausted every day but I'm trying not to look like a lazy couch potato. We'll see how long that lasts.

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*(Day -4) Friday (May 7th), was a tough day. My stomach was really bugging me so I basically slept all day and watched a few episodes of Glee. Chemo was alright. I got to leave the room for about an hour because I had to go down to radiation to get measured so they would have everything ready for radiation day.

*(Day -3) Saturday (May 8th), I started a new drug called cyclosporine. I've been on this drug before and I was not a fan at all. So far I've been handling it fairly well, it's just making me really nauseous. I have to get it twice a day so I try to plan naps around those times so I don't have to be awake to feel nauseous.

*(Day -2) Yesterday, Sunday (May 9th), was my last day of chemo! I'm starting to get really weak and my stomach is starting to hurt a lot more but knowing that I'm done with chemo is a huge relief. Unfortunately, things still have to get worse before they get better so I'm not in the clear yet.

*(Day -1) Today, Monday (May 10th), was radiation day. Radiation was pretty easy, I just had to sit in a weird position for 20 minutes while they taped me down and let the machine do it's work. I didn't feel it and I felt fine afterwards. I spent the rest of the day relaxing because tomorrow is the big day! Chemo definitely wasn't easy but I got through it and I hopefully never have to experience that again.

**Reason of the Week: I'm done with chemo! That's definitely a reason to smile (RTS)