Hanging in There

It's Saturday morning and so far, so good. I'm a little out of it, to be expected, so hopefully this will all make sense. :) Things seem to have hit me much faster this time around. Normally the steroids keep me feeling pretty darn normal until Saturday night/Sunday morning, but that is not the case this time I guess. 

Because administering the chemo will only take 2 hours this time, instead of the 4-5 as before so now I go in the afternoon, so I can go to acupuncture first (which doesn't open until noon). Acupuncture first is said to help keep nausea to a minimum. So, I had acupuncture first and then we headed across the hall to the doctor's office at 1. This was the longest wait we've ever had -- I don't know if it's a downfall of going in the afternoon or if they were having an off day or what, but we didn't even get in to see the doctor until close to 2:30, which was kind of a drag. 

The good news first, Herceptin, which is said to be quite hard on the heart (but then tends to bounce back when you're finished) has had absolutely zero effect on my heart function. I'd like to think the supplements my naturopath is having me take for heart function helped with that. 

My white blood cells have dipped again for some reason and my neutrophils are not as high as they would like, but nothing so low to make them not proceed. I'm not sure how or why they would have dipped in the last few weeks, but hopefully they don't dip too much more too fast. I guess we just have to wait and see and nope the Neulasta they gave me (the little pack that sticks to my abdomen and is supposed to help keep my white blood cells up) does its job. 

We finally got settled back in the cushy new chemo chairs, then they almost administered Herceptin, which CANNOT be taken with my current chemo drugs. Fortunately I noticed and, as the nurse went to find out what was going on my doctor had noticed the mistake and was heading back to the chemo room, meeting her in the hallway. After a bit of confusion, everything was set straight and we got started. My doctor also later called me on the way home to apologize and assure me everything was straightened out in the computer and that it wouldn't happen again. 

I don't get any Benadryl this time which is good. It made me sooooo out of it for hours. Just two anti-nausea drugs, the Cytoxin, then they push the Adriamyacin ("The Red Devil") with a syringe. Which is somehow more ominous or something to watch. We were out of there about two hours after the IVs started, in time for Daniel to grab J from daycare and me to head off to the pharmacy for my steroids and anti-nausea meds. They're also having me take a low dose of antibiotics to help prevent me from getting C-Diff again, which I'm not thrilled about, but I'd be less thrilled about getting C-Diff again. I'm apparently to be on high alert for this as it's got a high incidence of recurring with more chemo, so I am to call the second there's any sign of it and to get tested immediately. 

They warned me the Adria would make my urine discolored but hopefully not for more than two days. I was surprised to see it only one hour later. By the time I was putting J to bed at 8 p.m. I started feeling really weird and sweaty and nauseous. I was shocked to be feeling the effects so quickly. 

I've essentially been sleeping since then, while Daniel mans every other aspect of our lives, in addition to working. James is at the gym with him now (they have a play room) and I'm going to attempt to fold a load of laundry. I'm trying to drink as much as possible as hydration is certainly the most important thing here. I'm not horribly nauseous, but I'm not hungry either. I've definitely had to force myself to eat and nothing really sounds good. Although things hit me faster this time, I'm still worried the worst is yet to come, so I'm doing what I can to eat and drink now. We'll see. 

Just thought I'd get this out now, since I'm having a lot of people checking in, asking how I'm doing. Looks like some good weather is on it's way, so I'm looking forward to coming out the other side.