I cannot lie, I was scared to death to head into chemo today after that last allergic reaction. Feeling your breath get restricted is frightening as hell.
I met with my regular oncologist (who had been away on a 2 week vacation). She is really the best and I'm so thankful I ended up in Brockport with her. She feels that the allergic reaction is usually a one-time deal, but is going to double up my steroids and benadryl for the remainder of the times. My weight was down 2 lbs. Yay, but the increased steroids will power through that weight loss. My ANC (white blood cells) was THIRTY!!!! So, a normal level is around 4-11. An elevated level usually means that your white blood cells are kicked into gear fighting an infection. I don't have an infection, so the Neupogen shots plus the steroids are probably causing the huge increase. So, it looks like I may not need the 2 Neupogen shots this week, but I have to have a blood draw in the middle, just to make sure the number is staying high. My anemia is slowly getting better. It's at 33 now. I still have to check and see what a normal number is for that.
My latest symptoms are extreme exhaustion, to the point that I can't lift my arms and my legs feel like they are made of stone. This is a new level on the tired scale for me. And unfortunately, it is happening right when I need to keep the house clean for showings and I have less than 10 more days to pack us up. I do a little work and then lay flat on my back for a good hour at a time. The kids are watching a lot of tv and iPad and there's nothing I can do about it. I am still getting a little numbness in my left foot, but it comes and goes so they aren't too worried about it. It hasn't made me stumble or fall yet. Two newish symptoms are bloody noses and my finger nails are growing funky - splitting and weirdly bumpy. Some people lose their finger and toe nails during chemo. I hope I avoid that.
When I got the clearance to go back to the chemo room for treatment, my heart was racing. My heart rate was 105. It has been hovering at 98-105 in the past few weeks. I have to seriously breath and force myself to calm down. I have the stress from the move on top of worrying about another allergic reaction to the Taxol. I got the anti-nausea meds, the anti-heartburn meds, a double steroid, and then a double benadryl. When they were giving me the Benadryl, I was feeling incredibly drugged up. The room was spinning when I was moving my eyes and I felt like I was moving through Jell-O. It was hard to stay awake. When the Taxol was started, my favorite nurse stuck by me and made sure I was not going to have a reacion. I didn't and then after about 10 minutes of knowing today wasn't the day I was going to die, I relaxed. Dave gave me one of his amazing foot massages. Due to the increased Benadryl, driving myself to and from chemo on my own cannot happen anymore.
THREE MORE!!!!!!!!
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