Phase V
Okay I am having a Chemo Brain/foggy moment, <wink>… I’ll explain why that is in a moment. First I want to share what my sister and mom found for me. We all had and have fun with it. My mom goes to Roswell Cancer Institute for regular check ups as you can imagine (5-time cancer survivor), my sister went with her that day. While checking in with the clinic Barb noticed a Brochure, which made her laugh at the title and picked it up to show my mom. The two of them were laughing to the point of tears to their eyes as the title is “Fact Sheet – Combating Chemobrain: Keeping Your Mind Sharp”. Earlier that week we were laughing and joking at lunch about this specific topic “Chemobrain", we also refer to it as Chemofog, call it what you want, the fact remains that it exist. My mom has experienced it, my sister Barb has and I surely am. The fact sheet really has a number of helpful hints that I want to share and have included it on my blog page with Cancer Cares contract information who put the brochure together. The first time I saw someone outside of my family laugh at Chemobrain was one day during my first round of treatments. A woman preparing for treatment was going to take her e-mend pill. When she punched the pill out of the pack nothing came out so she thought she received a defective pack. She asked her husband to run over to the drug store and get a new pack that had all the pills needed. He left and came back a few minutes later saying he probably should have the packet to show the pharmacist that there was no pill. So the woman stood up looking for the packet and the two-color pill fell off her lap. She said oh look here is the pill, he responded oh Chemobrain! Lynn and I looked at each other not sure how to respond to that, then she started to laugh and say yeah… Good thing I stood up how embarrassing would that be to have gone all the way to the pharmacy to get a corrected pack to only find it was in my lap… A number of us laughed at that point as we have experienced chemobrain/fog and could relate. I had not seen another family like ours deal with chemobrain/fog with humor. It was a relief that they did too… Her husband is so supportive and tried to help other spouses who were struggling maybe a bit. That was really nice to see.
Okay, back to why I had a chemobrain/fog moment. The dates and what happen do roll into one big adventure… I can call it my Big Chemo Adventure and an adventure it is… I do laugh a lot and find humor in many different situations I find myself in, as does my family. What I wrote for August 24 actually happens with my treatment on September 21st. Today August 24th Doxel was available for my treatment and my daughter was with me that day <smile>. My CA-125 number when down from 3500 to 2800, yea! I am feeling good. So ready for my infusion, Megs and I have a coffee and a dunkachino thing plus snacks. So I am psyching myself up that the infusion is going to go good (it is the red fluid thing again, can’t watch it going in). I looked at Megs after they sped up the drip of Doxel and asked if my face was turning red. Of course it was, she said yep. I am reacting to it again, damn and Megs is with me this time. Hopefully the nurses will be able to get it under control quickly like they did the last time. She has not seen a reaction and I worried how she would handle this. From the outside it looks really scary, I’m really flush, labor breathing isn’t pretty. The nurses kick into another gear, stopped the infusion, gave me oxygen, more steroids and Benadryl and we waited. The symptoms subsided, and yes the drug was re-introduced with no problems! Phew this is a relief. Megs seems to be okay with the whole experience since I am not reacting anymore to the drug. A number of the other patients commented how much better I look now. Yes, I feel much better too. My doctor came into the infusion room to check on me through the rest of my Doxel infusion in between patients. Because I am doing fine after I receive another dose of steroids and Benadryl it was recommended that I increase my steroid consumption before treatment from 2 pills at 24 and 12 hours before treatment to 5 pill 24 and 12 hours before. Hopefully that will do the trick. So much for sleeping that night after chemo as I will be on a steroid high. The upside is I have lots of energy so I cook after work and have leftover stuff for the weekend that I may want to eat.
I have my blood work on September 5th; on the 6th I received a call that my hemoglobin level was just above 7. Normal is about 12-15 for a female. The nurses at the infusion clinic in the past would call me at home and get our voice mail. Then they decided to try me at work and laughed when I answered my phone. They asked how are you out of bed? I responded I feel a little tired but over all not bad and work helps me. After that 1st call they now call my cell phone and if I don’t answer they call me at work. I am schedule for Chemo on 21st, so again there is concern if my level would improve enough for chemo by then. We are not sure as I have only had 2 Carboplatin/Doxel treatments and I already need a transfusion. My doctor is recommending a transfusion this week and I agree, as I don’t want to miss a chemo treatment. So my transfusion is scheduled from Friday the 9th. I have had 2 other transfusions in my 1st treatment round last year and by the end of the each weekend I felt better. I am a bit short of breath and feel a bit tired. So a transfusion will get me ready for my next treatment. Hopefully it will be like the last time and a transfusion will help me for a few treatments. So getting transfusion it will be. Throughout my experience I have followed my doctor’s recommendations and have only experienced one delay in my treatments. That was due to my white blood count being a bit low and the only thing that helps that is rest. I did get a neulasta shot that helps white blood cell count after that so I didn’t have that problem again after that. For this transfusion my daughter lent me a book to read “The Help”. I am looking forward to 4 hours of nothing to do but read and relax. The transfusion went fine, no problems, and I slept for a good nap after words. In a day or two I will be a bundle of energy and great color in my cheeks.
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