The idea of having a journal of my chemotherapy was my mother's, but the idea to put it online is mine. I've surfed around and looked at some personal stories of people going through chemotherapy. I think it helps a lot for others who might be going through something similar to have an idea of what could happen. So far my experience has been pretty positive, and I'd like to share it to balance the horror stories that generally make us worry a great deal about dealing with Cancer. This is a journal so I'll go by date and happenings. My thoughts and opinions would be in a different blog. I've not written it yet lol. Bear with me.
28 March 2012 - Day 1
My mom woke us up at 6 a.m. so that we could complete our morning prayers and leave bright and early for University Hospital (UH). I had asked the staff nurse at the UH's outpatient service ward where I had my pre-chemotherapy tests done, and where I would be having my chemo whether I could drive home afterwards, and she said that even though most patients did not experience any side effects on the day of the chemo itself, it would be more advisable that I don't drive since this is going to be my first session and we don't know yet whether or not I would have any reaction. So we went down and looked for a cab about 6.40 a.m. and were on our way by 6.50 a.m. We arrived at UH at 7.35 a.m. and stopped by the shop downstairs to get some sandwiches and other tidbits for my breakfast and so that I could snack throughout if I wanted to. We arrived at ward 10U at about 7.50. There were a few others there ahead of us but apparently they were there for the tests and not the chemo (yeay!!! I love being first in line!).
By around 8.00 a.m. I was having the I.V. needle inserted. I hate needles but I find that if I don't look and take deep breaths it doesn't hurt as much. Plus I'm getting quite used to it already ;P
The nurse started by hooking me up to the saline solution, and then she gave me the anti-nausea medicine via the I.V. After that was a sort of steroid based thing that she was inserting slowly into the flow, because it had a rather curious effect... there was this almost prickly sensation in my ah... well, down there lol. but that dissipated pretty quickly once the medicine has fully gone in.
The chairs that they had there were very comfortable. Good firm cushions and you can adjust it to a reclining position, with footrests too. Unfortunately this first one I tried, even though comfortable, didn't really fit my back. After 2 hours or so, I started getting twinges in my back. I tried changing seats... the other one was MUCH better although didn't look like much at first.
But the damage was done so after one hour more sitting on the new chair I asked the nurses if I could walk off the stiffness I was still feeling. They were inclined to worry a bit about me walking, but they could see that my back was not allowing any arguments lol. In any case the walk did me a world of good. They had fixed a gadget that is supposed to make sure that the flow from the drip continues without interruption, and it did keep on giving alarm while I was walking which brought nurses rushing to me till they saw that I knew what to do with it. I guess standing up put my heart kinda too high up, so that the drip slowed and sometimes if I moved my hand a certain way it might stop. I didn't take that long a walk so it was okay though.
In any case the new chair fit my back much better so I could even drowse and fall asleep in it. I had my snacks, and by lunchtime my husband had to go off again in search of more sandwiches for me and some lunch for him.
I was taking carbo-platinum and generic taxol for my chemo. I had paid for the meds on my previous visit, and the pharmacy was supposed to send it up to the ward the day before, but they didn't. They've not even gotten around to preparing it until the nurses called up that morning, so I had to wait till 10.00 a.m. before they could run that into me.
That delay meant that everything was done only by about 3.00 p.m. However, I had a nice relaxing time and even though I was really hungry (sandwiches and tidbits can only bring you so far after all...) I really was marveling so much at the fact that I didn't seem to have any adverse reactions worth mentioning, that I was in no mood to feel bad tempered about anything. The nurses did warn me that my nausea and stuff would probably start on the following day, but I was feeling so good I couldn't believe that it could be that bad. PLUS around lunchtime we had dignitaries (I believe the KL chief of police and his spouse was visiting the hospital) come around to visit us, and I got a FREE hamper (I'm Malaysian I love free stuff!!! lol) which just made my day :D
We took a cab home and my husband and I went for a late lunch at our nearby favorite eating place.
~~ here ends Day 1 of my chemotherapy experience. all good so far :) ~~
29 March 2012 - Day 2
I woke up for morning prayers and took my anti-nausea pill around 7.30 a.m. I just felt a very very slight dizziness like I sometimes do when my blood pressure is a little low. No vomiting, and no other adverse effects that I could detect. In fact, I might have not noticed the dizziness too much had I not been checking myself for all those side effects people were always telling me about ;P The dizziness was only noticeable off and on for about an hour or so in the morning, and later on around 7.00 in the evening.
My parents and grandfather were coming to stay with us for the duration of my chemo so the day was spent mostly getting last minute stuff ready for their arrival. My hubby of course insisted that I don't do anything, but since I always find it hard to do absolutely nothing, I got away with doing some stuff... lol.
Before bed, I took my anti-constipation medicine. Somehow it did not seem to agree with me and I basically threw up a few minutes after taking it. Well, I wasn't constipated at all so far so I hope I'll still be okay tomorrow.
Basically, thats it! Uneventful as far as chemo related stuff are concerned, though quite a full day otherwise.
~~ here ends Day 2 of my chemotherapy experience. all good so far :) ~~
30 March 2012 - Day 3
I'm feeling a bit of pressure, not quite pain, in my private parts. Thats kind of odd because I don't recollect being told that as a side effect I might experience from chemo. But its not severe so things are okay. I'm not constipated so my throwing up the meds last night didn't seem to have much of an effect.
31st March - 3 April 2012
Hahahaha! There goes my resolution to write everyday lol. Honestly though, I couldn't think WHAT to write. My stamina is slightly less, but I can still walk around and do stuff, plus it might not be because of the chemo at all. After all, I have been "taking it easy" for a few weeks after surgery (read: enforced inactivity lol) so it might just be because of that. I have sufficient energy if I pace myself carefully, but I'm used to doing that already because of my back problems before. No dizziness, no nausea, definitely no hairloss (my doctor already said I'm not likely to go bald or anything so thats not surprising).
I did start feeling itchiness in spots and some slight numbness at the tips of my fingers. The itch kind of moves around and doesn't stay in one spot for long. It might be on a finger at one moment, then after half an hour or an hour I'd feel itchiness on my foot, then back of one of my hands. I have to watch myself and make sure I don't scratch, but sometimes I'm absent minded enough that I forget. The rashes appear AFTER I scratch, and even those are almost invisible. I'd post pics but I don't think u guys can see anything except my skin lol. Yesterday I called the hospital and the staff nurse in charge advised me to take Piriton 4mg for the itchiness which is an allergy reaction, and use Chalomine Lotion if I have any rashes. It was quite a distance to go to University Hospital, so I just bought them off a nearby pharmacy. The piriton causes drowsiness so I took it before going to bed, that way I could be more assured of a good night's sleep and it won't make me nod off at odd times in the day. Today, no more itchiness :D yeay! We'll see how long that lasts so I can determine whether I need to take it twice a day or just once.
~ uh, I've no idea its day what of my chemo @.@ lol. I guess u can count it out yrselves ;D all good so far...
10 April 2012
I had my blood test on 6th April. I kinda got really exhausted after coming back and just slept it off... Seems like I'm sleeping a lot more than I used to, but of course I used to make do with 4 to 5 hours of sleep per night, so a few hours more than that is not really "a lot" ;D I think its all the healing my body is doing after the chemo. I've been trying to work out how many hours more sleep I need which would make it "enough". It seems to be 4 hours more than my usual. I can't seem to do the sleeping all at once tho, so I've been taking afternoon naps. That seems to work out pretty fine and still leave me most of the day (and some of the night) active.
One of my former office mates came to visit on the weekend, and now that I'm writing this, I'm mentally kicking myself that I didn't take pics. Urh, I'm getting forgetful in my old age lol.
During my shower today for the first time I had a small handful of hair come out when I shampooed. I always freak a little bit when I lose some hair (LOL) but its not enough to make me bald or anything like that so its alright. My doc did say I'll have some hair loss, so its not unexpected. In any case, I'm gonna try (again) and see if I can't sleep one whole stretch of 8-9 hours tonight and see if that would work.
~~ all good (STILL) so far :D ~~
14 April 2012
ohhhh phew! I thought I lost this page, it turned out somehow I went and made the whole thing a draft so it didn't appear. @.@ lol
In any case, I can sleep in one stretch although I still wake up after the first 4-5 hrs. But that's okay. I drink a lot of pomegranate and cherry juices, which my mom and I finally found a good place to buy from (they're not readily available everywhere). My cousin told us about the place near Wisma MAIS, and we went there quite some time back.
Its a really interesting shop. They even have a website, and a virtual store. I don't wanna bother with that, after all, they're just about 5 minutes away by car.
I was taking a shower and shampooing my hair some days ago, and when I took my hands out of the suds in my hair, I kinda freaked. There was A LOT of hair on it. In any case, I thought I'd better cut my hair short since I've been "molting" all over the house. Not that I would actually stop losing hair if I cut it short, but if its shorter then it won't be so noticeable all over the place ;P Anyway, I googled "short hair for women" and happened on an image of Halle Berry. I thought it would be just the thing so I printed it and showed it to the hairdresser.
Oh well, there goes my dream of looking like Halle Berry roflmao!
Anyway, the hairdresser I went to told me that my hair might grow back really beautiful later on. Either that or if I'm not as lucky, they'll grow back white o.0 He told me he's seen both happen with his customers who've also gone through chemo. In any case, I don't mind... I suppose if I don't like 'em white I'll have a very very good reason to henna them :D My my... so many things to look forward to.... its really cool.
24 April 2012
Well... me boy-o's :D I had my pre-chemo checkup on 17 April and my second chemo cycle on 18 April. Wonder of wonders... it took LONGER!!! I was not expecting that... What happened was that the drip was slower, so even though my father, my husband and I arrived promptly at 8 a.m. and all the meds were all ready, I was there till 4 p.m. It was okay for me, since I had a very comfortable chair and I can put my feet up, but I guess it was rather exhausting for my two escorts :(
The good thing about that is I managed to get the staff nurse there to copy down my relevant stats (full blood count, renal function and CA125) so that I could track them from cycle to cycle, so here they are to date:
As at 26 March:
CA125: 72
White blood cells: 10.8
Platelet: 330
Creatinine: 63
Weight: 79.5kg
As at 6 April:
White blood cells: 6.3
Platelet: 311
Creatinine: 47
As at 17 April:
CA125: 34
White blood cells: 8.6
Platelet: 339
Creatinine: 57
Weight: 77.5kg
Note that my CA125 (thats the cancer marker) went down from 72 to 34 which is really good :)
All went well with the chemo. I ate, I talked with the other patients there and the nurses, I walked around... Just like before. The next day I didn't feel much reaction except for the nausea which went away when I took the anti-nausea medicine. But that night and the next day (20 April) I started feeling a lot of pain in my joints. Its like the pain you might experience after recovering from flu, but rather more acute. My hubby was up at 3, 4 a.m. giving me massage before I could sleep again, and I spent the next day mostly in bed. 21st April the pain was less, and by 22nd I was just rather tired. Now its all good again :)
No itching so far, or rather, not enough to notice. I do feel rather warm most of the time. My hubby and my mom as well both have told me that I am warmer to the touch, although not feverish. I don't mind so much, for me feeling hot is always preferable to feeling cold. Thing is, my head sweats lol. My pillow is rather damp in the morning because of it. In any case its not much of an inconvenience.
It does seem fairly likely that I am going to be losing all my hair. I talked to the nurses and they told me that I might even lose my eyebrows and eyelashes. One thing I've discovered about losing hair is that I could get the sniffles when my head gets cold lol. So now I've kinda gotten into the habit of putting a little towel round my head when I go to bed, sort of like a little blanket for my head. When I do that, I don't sneeze, cough or get a runny nose in the morning like I did before.
Anyways, maybe I can look like Sinnead O'Connor instead of Halle Berry?
What do you think?
to be continued :)
I've a million things to say but I guess I will put it in a prayer..
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