The day started out pretty good. Arrived at the hospital. Was brought back and had my IV put in through my port, blood drawn and was brought back to Infusion after my meeting with my Oncologist. I got all settled in my room and the nurse, Lara brought in my meds for the day. They started me out with some Benadryl, then my steroids, which both went smoothly. Then came the Taxol.
With my last chemo, they started me out slow to see how it would affect me,and it was fine. No problems. So typically with the second round they speed up the cc's per hour. About seven minutes, 12 cc's, into the Taxol I felt this weird feeling in my stomach, then it moved up to my heart. My heart felt like it instantly was beating 1000 times a minute and was pounding through my chest and instantly my lungs felt heavy. Right at the time that they were feeling heavy, I sat up in the chair, just trying to figure out what was going on, then I started to have a hard time breathing and had the most extreme hot flashes I have ever experienced. When that happened I told my husband that I needed Lara right away and he ran to the hallway and told her to come in. Her, along with a few other nurses quickly ran in and reversed my reaction and kept a close eye on me.
Apparently this reaction is VERY rare for breast cancer patients, they did not think that was going to happen because patients who have ovarian cancer are more susceptible to having a reaction of this kind... So obviously this would happen too me, right?? Not sure exactly why but I was really scared for a few minutes there,that's for sure, but I think my ability to stay calm helped a TON!
Lara gave me some more Benadryl and wow, it knocked me out for two hours or so and they slowed down the drip of the Taxol and kept a very close eye on me for the first half hour or so and my mom and the hubs watched me for the remainder. I didn't have any other problems for the rest of the chemo and actually felt GREAT after I woke up. I guess two doses of Benadryl will do it, hey? This was me not too long after my "beauty rest" armed with my new friend that I named "Slim"... lol It felt A-MAZING to get that good of sleep!!
On a side note, I've heard that with some people due to the double dose of steroids they give you with the Taxol that it can keep you awake at night when "normal people" sleep. Last night I was up till 3:30AM cleaning and probably could of stayed up longer if the hubs didn't wake up wondering where I was. The good thing about that is I managed to get a load of laundry done, dishes put away, cleaned up some cans and stuff in the living room. The downer is obviously I'm a little tired right now. But it's nothing a few gallons of coffee can't fix right?
I'm anticipating some pain over the next week or so. I'm kind of nervous but I'm armed with Vicodin,Tylenol and some comfy sweatpants with a heating pad; so we will see...
I am blessed to have made it to #6 and now I only have two more left......two more. Woo hoo!!
I can't imagine going through cancer and chemo, much less at our age and with the calm and sense of humor you do. I pray that everything works out the way you want it to. I don't know if I could face cancer the way you do if the tables were turned. Saying "good luck" sounds like a cliche, but I can't think of any better words.
ReplyDeleteEmily, you are truly an inspiration!! You go girl!!!!!
ReplyDeleteEmily congrats on getting through chemo no. 6! You have so much courage and I love your ability to smile through the hard stuff. But you're doing it and I applaud you. Only two more to go! Bravo!!
ReplyDeleteAngeline, Thank you so much! I have definitely tried to stay as positive as I can through this whole process! I cannot wait to be done...but as weird as this sounds it will be bitter sweet because I will miss the nurses in the infusion area!
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Love your blog! Stay strong in this ridiculous fight! =)
ReplyDeleteThanks I'm trying!! I just take it one day at a time and remember to smile once in a while! :)
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