July 10th was a day I have been dreading since getting the "You've got cancer" news. July 10 was day 1 of my chemo treatments. Though it was a day I was dreading, it was also a day I was looking forward to because it meant I was finally doing something to kill this stupid cancer. It was a step toward a cure and overcoming this trial.
I decided that we would all wear pink on my chemo days so I found these fun shirts for the kids to wear on those days. Their shirts say "I Wear Pink for My Mom!" with the breast cancer awareness pink ribbon on them. I also got four breast cancer shirts for me and two for Russell to wear during treatments. It was a pink day for all of us.
Russell and I dropped the kids off at our friend, Kelly Dennis's, house for the day. They had a great time playing with the Dennis kids as well as all the other neighborhood kids in that area. They keep asking when they can go back to the Dennis's.
After dropping off the kids, we headed to the hospital.
My port was accessed and labs were drawn to check my blood and liver levels. This gave the doctor a baseline to measure my levels and other things for the future treatments. Then while the labs were being measured, I went up to see the Oncologist, Dr. S. He was really nice and told me about some of the possible side effects. Then he asked if I was ready for this and I told him, "I guess I better be..."
Then it was back downstairs to start the dreaded Chemo...
Before starting the chemo, I had some premeds run through the IV which included a steroid to prevent swelling and anti-nausea medicine to obviously prevent nausea for the next few days. This ran for about an hour and then it was chemo time. The chemo medicine came in a bio-hazard chemical bag and the nurse giving it to me was basically in a hazmat suit so that she would be protected from this poison. I know what you are thinking hazmat suits, bio-chemical bags and then we are just going to inject that stuff into my veins. Yeah it was a little crazy.
I am laughing in this picture because of the irony of the whole situation. The hazmat suit, the poison, and lets just put it in my body. Yeah sounds like a good idea. The first chemo drug was Taxotere. This ran for about an hour. The next chemo drug I got was Cytoxin. This one ran for about a half hour. The whole administration process was pretty easy, Russell and I just sat there and took it. And finally at about 1:30 it was done. One chemo treatment down, three to go. We headed home after stopping at Cafe Rio for lunch. If anything this chemo lets Russell and me have a date alone once in a while. It kind of sucks it has to be this way but lets look on the bright side, right?
After picking up the kids, we drove home and we noticed that our awesome neighbors had "Heart Attacked" us! The note said that they loved us and were thinking about us. I couldn't believe it. It was so awesome.
Here's some more fun pictures of us in pink. A few days before chemo, I told everyone to wear pink on my chemo day to show support for all of those great ladies fighting breast cancer. I thought a few of my close friends would do it but I was totally overwhelmed by the response I got. All day I was receiving messages and pictures from people in their pink. They all sent their love and support to me and I could not believe what I was seeing. I had no idea that my family and I had so may supporters and friends. It was amazing. Here are all of the awesome people who love us and sent me pictures of them in their pink shirts:
Can you believe that? There were over 50 people in these pictures not to mention the ones who did not send me a picture. Not only did my close friends do this, but people I have not seen or talked to forever did it too. There were even a few people I haven't seen since high school that sent me pictures and texts. I seriously could not believe it. I love all of these great people!!
Now that I have had my first chemo treatment, it was time to just wait and see how my body reacted to the poison and what side effects would come from it.
I was doing okay for the first couple days but then I just got really tired. I slept a lot. I took my Zolfran for a couple of days just to ward off any nausea I might have. On the fourth day the diarrhea started so I took Imodium. I also started that time of the month and for some reason (probably chemo) it was much heavier than usual and lasted a few days longer. Because of this, I had a migraine as well. The nurses said I could take Tylenol but to take my temperature first in case I had a fever. I was running a slight fever of 99 but I took the Tylenol and went to bed. That helped the headache. Then on the fifth day I was super tired again. Before going to bed I took my temperature again and it was 100.9 which is higher than it should have been for a chemo patient. My doctor said that if I had a fever that high, I should come in or go to the ER and be checked out for neutropenia. That is when your white blood cell are so low that they cannot fight any infections that might be causing the fevers. The doctor said that if left untreated, I could die. This really worried me so I called Russell and he was able to come home from work and take me to the ER since it was almost midnight by that time. Calen and Ro were able to come over and watch the kids.
That night at the ER was probably the longest night of my life! It was so bad. I had to wear a mask the whole time to protect me from getting anything going around the ER. This was bad because I felt like I couldn't breath from claustrophobia. The nurses accessed my port and drew more labs. Then we had to wait FOREVER!! Then I had a chest x-ray, then we had to wait some more. Then they wanted to draw labs from another vein to compare the first set too. This was the worst too because the Tech could not get a vein for some reason and kept fishing around which did not feel the greatest. Finally another Tech came in and fixed the first tech's mistake before she blew my vein. This also didn't feel the best. But finally they got the blood they needed. Then we waited some more. I was so tired but I could not sleep because I was so uncomfortable and we had to wait and wait and wait. I was about ready to say "Forget it, I'll just die at home" when the doctor finally came in and told us what we already knew. He said that I did have neutropenic fever but everything else looked fine. My white cells had dropped from 8,000 on chemo day to 1,200 five days later. This was not ideal but they gave me this super antibiotic to take for 7 days to kill any bacteria that might have been causing the fever. Finally at 4:30 am, after taking the first antibiotic, we were able to go home. It was the longest night ever!
When we got home, I was feeling so sick so I just went to bed. At 6 am I woke up with crazy diarrhea and threw up (sorry for the TMI). I took a shower and was totally wiped out. I took another Zolfran and Imodium and went back to bed for the rest of the day. During this time, the kids got sick too. Colby threw up twice and Emily threw up all day. Charlotte puked once and Logan said his stomach hurt but he never threw up. Because of my super weak immune system, I was quarantined to my room so I would not get whatever the kids had. That left poor Russell to take the brunt of taking care of everyone. I felt so bad that I couldn't help but every time I tried to come out of the room to help he told me to get back in the room. I was so glad he was there to take care of us and that his Captains at work were able to let him stay home from work to be there for us. There is no way I could have done it on my own.
By the next day (Sunday) we all were feeling better. I still stayed in bed most of the day but was not nearly as bad off as the day before. Now I had a new problem though. I think I OD'ed on Imodium because now I could not go to the bathroom at all. This I think was worse than the other. I was like this for three to four days. I could not even eat anything because it hurt so bad. I followed up with Dr. S on Tuesday and I told him I was feeling much better and the fever was going away. He said I looked fine and the antibiotic was probably the best thing to help me. I was relieved until he told me I probably shouldn't have take the Imodium when I had a fever because it could actually trap the bacteria in your body and kill you. Oh great I thought now I really am going to die... He gave me some ideas on how to get things regular again and I went home and started the process. I was really worried that with my white blood count so low that he would say we needed to do Neulasta shots now but he didn't say anything about that. I guess we will see what he says when I go in for my next treatment.
After walking on the treadmill everyday and doing some other tricks, things started getting regular again and I have started feeling much better over the last little bit.
The worst side effect I have been experiencing through out this whole ordeal has been my taste buds. The chemo totally killed all of the taste buds in my mouth. Now I cannot taste anything. Everything I eat just tastes bad. I don't even want to eat sometimes because I know it will just taste like barf. Even drinking water tastes like I am drinking out of a warm garden hose. The worst was when I was eating an Otter Pop with the kids. The coldness was great for my mouth but the taste was so bad that I didn't even want to finish. It just tasted like a barf flavored Jelly Belly bean. (Yes I have eaten one of those.) I also have a constant bad taste in my mouth which I try to get rid of with water but then the water tastes like hose. I have found that if I put a flavor in the water and a lot of ice, it is not so bad.
I still have my hair which is good but I don't know how much longer I will have it for. Usually it takes about 3-6 weeks to fall out. I have noticed a little more than usual on my pillow in the morning and in the shower when I wash it but so far it is not gone yet.
On the bright side though, chemotherapy has not been as bad as I thought at least this round any way. I was preparing for the worst while hoping for the best and it was not as bad as I thought all things considered so that was good.
Russell and the kids have been great supporters and have been great at getting things done while I have been in bed. Thankfully Russell has had a couple weeks off from work so he has been having fun taking the kids to the library, Lincoln free lunch, and the splash pad. It is good for him and the kids to spend time together.
Well you gotta love chemo side effects... I am 25% done with chemo, we will see how the rest of the treatments go...
To be continued...
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