Chemo # 4
You know those curly clown wigs of rainbow colors? One of my teachers gave me one of them the other day, so I put it to good use yesterday. I walked in to the doctor's office wearing it, told them that my hair was starting to come back, "And you all had told me it would come back curly and a different color!"
Yesterday was my last chemo...for awhile, that is! It seems my port sits sideways. I probably did it myself when I'd reach to turn off the alarm in the mornings. When Stephanie tried to access it, she poked a little deeper than where the lidocaine worked. Big woosie here. So she pulled it out and started over with another shot of lidocaine and punched another bent needle into it. (Yeah, they're supposed to be bent--that's how it works.) Hey, now when they draw blood, it's right THERE in the syringe. I also learned the reason they take 2 vials is that the first one is the throwaway one because it's flushing out the saline and stuff in the port so that the next vial is "clean blood."
I'm even more anemic than last time, so more arenesp. And I'll get to come in every 2 weeks for more of those shots. My platelets, however, have come back to a reasonable level, and my absolute lymphs are still just a little above normal.
The protocol was the same as before: 2 small pouches of two different anti-nausea meds, followed by a pint-sized pouch of cytoxan. Then she "pushes" the four horse syringes of adriamycin into the line. I had to have an extra pouch of saline because of taking so long. After all the meds are in my system, I got disconnected and got 2 tiny shots in my tummy--one of neulasta and one of arenesp. I was in there from 1:00 to 4:00 PM.
Now I see my surgeon to set up surgery in 2 to 3 weeks. (I'm shooting for May 3rd.) I'm sure she'll want an MRI before going in. Dr. C is very impressed with how small the tumor seems. Of course we were having some discussion as to which lump was the tumor! "You got lumps EVERYWHERE!" duh! Because it appears that the tumor has shrunk, he did say that it looks like I now have an 80% chance for a cure. That was the good news.
Until next time,
Be well.
Yesterday was my last chemo...for awhile, that is! It seems my port sits sideways. I probably did it myself when I'd reach to turn off the alarm in the mornings. When Stephanie tried to access it, she poked a little deeper than where the lidocaine worked. Big woosie here. So she pulled it out and started over with another shot of lidocaine and punched another bent needle into it. (Yeah, they're supposed to be bent--that's how it works.) Hey, now when they draw blood, it's right THERE in the syringe. I also learned the reason they take 2 vials is that the first one is the throwaway one because it's flushing out the saline and stuff in the port so that the next vial is "clean blood."
I'm even more anemic than last time, so more arenesp. And I'll get to come in every 2 weeks for more of those shots. My platelets, however, have come back to a reasonable level, and my absolute lymphs are still just a little above normal.
The protocol was the same as before: 2 small pouches of two different anti-nausea meds, followed by a pint-sized pouch of cytoxan. Then she "pushes" the four horse syringes of adriamycin into the line. I had to have an extra pouch of saline because of taking so long. After all the meds are in my system, I got disconnected and got 2 tiny shots in my tummy--one of neulasta and one of arenesp. I was in there from 1:00 to 4:00 PM.
Now I see my surgeon to set up surgery in 2 to 3 weeks. (I'm shooting for May 3rd.) I'm sure she'll want an MRI before going in. Dr. C is very impressed with how small the tumor seems. Of course we were having some discussion as to which lump was the tumor! "You got lumps EVERYWHERE!" duh! Because it appears that the tumor has shrunk, he did say that it looks like I now have an 80% chance for a cure. That was the good news.
Until next time,
Be well.
2 Comments:
I would have loved to have been there when you walked in with the wig! Good job. Did you take pictures? If you did, you have to post them. I posted my mouse ears picture, now it is your turn! HA!
Your port is sideways? But that is not the reason this is the last chemo for awhile, correct? My port is directly under the skin and raised so much I can easily feel the entire rim all the way down to the backside. I don't think it would have room to flip. Anything they can do to straighten it?
80% sounds like a real good chance to me. And shrinking tumor sounds even better. Sure hope he is correct. Are the other lumps from the CLL nodes or just fiberous bunches? How do they tell the difference, with contrast dye on the MRI? OK, I bombarded you with enough questions. I hope you don't have any bad reactions to this round and I am sure glad your platelets came back up. That will be important for the surgery, I would imagine. Now, let's hope the anemia gets better, too. Rooting for you!
John, We didn't get a picture, and I probably wouldn't be able to post it anyway...ignant that I are! ;-)
Nobody's talked about straightening the port. The lumps are from fibrocystic whatevers because there are no nodes in that part of the breast tissue on me. They will be using contrast dye for my MRI next Tuesday. They already asked if they could access a vein through my elbow joint. Seems you have to have a specially trained IV specialist to access the port here. Hope you're doing well. I'm heading over to yours right now.
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