Neulasta Injection

Wow, that chemo day kicked my ass. I was not prepared for exhaustion and nausea to come so quickly and strongly.  I was loaded up on three bags of anti-nausea prior to chemo, but three hours later, I was in agony holding a vomit bag for the rest of the night.  I made it through the night and a full day at work on Thursday.  Felt sick throughout that night.  Had a half day of work planned for Friday, thankfully......I wouldn't have made it the whole day.  I left at noon and had time to go home and sit for an hour - completely fell asleep!  I never can nap like that.  I went in for my Neulasta injection at 2:15.  Then I went home and fell asleep until 8:00pm!  Just waiting for the bone pain to start, since that's the major side effect of this drug.  It helps recover white blood cells - so thus the bone pain, while my marrow gets working overtime.   Sounds like it will get pretty brutal.  Waiting.  And while I'm waiting, I'm feeling nauseous again.  This could be a long night.  I am praying I rally by Monday.  They estimate 5 days of hell following each chemo.  They reminded me that I'm on a very tough regiment of chemo drugs.  My blood pressure and pulse are high - perhaps due to the steroids I'm taking so I don't feel so sick.

The Neulasta injection can be done with an on-body patch that gets placed the day of chemo.  It inserts a needle into your arm and then gives you a dose 24 hours later.  I was thinking I would do that, but now that I have seen one, I don't know if I want to wear that to school.  It will be very obvious and kids will ask about it.  It's a somewhat large box that gets stuck to the back of your arm.  And when it's giving you the meds, you need someone near you to make sure it actually injected you by reading the monitor.  Then it has to be removed and placed into a sharps container.  Might be too much for the work environment.  And, after today, I'm wondering if I will need to do a half day on Fridays to recover/sleep before picking up the kids at the end of the day.  So, maybe driving all the way to oncologist for the injection isn't a bad idea.  I will talk to the doctor when I see her again on Wednesday.

Since the oncologist warned that things will get worse as I get deeper into my treatments, I'm starting to rethink how I'm going to get through the next 4-5 months.  Hopefully things will seem brighter on Monday.  I'm holding out for that.....