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2/5/05 Saturday
My apologies for not doing an update for the past couple of days. Not that there is a lack to update on but fatigue coupled
with a serious lack of sleep and a steady diet of pain meds have made it nearly impossible to type.
Wednesday evening the decision was made to do another different type of chemo treatment that Dr. Joyce thought would have
a longer sustaining effect keeping tumors at bay until I received my next high dose chemo. This form of chemo is a three-day
treatment, with all the possibilities of getting me sick like all other previous chemos.
Thursday was day one of the three-day treatment. The treatments all seem to begin with prednisone (steriod) again this
is like a euphoric / speed like drug which gets the body racing.
Then a two hour infusion of the chemo drug itself. They tried to set me up with all the preventative/bad side effect drugs
they could. They also monitor blood pressure every fifteen minutes as a drop in blood pressure is a common side effect.
The treatment had seemed to go better than expected until 7hrs after, I started having signs of a negative reaction, chills/shakes
and fevers and a rapidly decreasing blood pressure. Demerol cures the chills/shakes, tylenol reduces the fever but the blood
pressure was very concerng when at 3:00am it was 50 over 50.They did an EKG and said my heart was fine and that they just
needed to induce mass amounts of IV fluids. I got through that round with a little excitement and very little sleep.
Fridays' treatment they tried more preventative drugs more often and they started the infusion earlier in the day. Everything
again had been going well until 7 or 8 hours later when the preventative drugs started to wear off. About 7:00pm just before
the nusing shift change I started to get the chills/shakes. They did all the same stuff demerol, tylenol and monitor my blood
pressure. (An example of my primary nurses' dedication; she and a co worker stayed and worked late until they knew my condition
was stable.) Unfortunately after they left, my nurse for the evening was just beginning orientation (new to the floor), she
was in all night working hard hanging many different IV antibiotics and giving me my many pills, but she forgot to give me
any sort of sleep aid. I sat and watched the clock go around until 4:00am when she came in to hang another bag, I told her
I could not sleep and she said "well you didn't want your sleep meds earlier" I have always just recieved them before
and have never had to ask, so I literally got no sleep last night.
The good news on Friday was I received my last radiation treatment. I bumped into the radiation oncologists Dr. on my
way out and she was extremly pleased with the limited side effects. She said the treatment (even though radiation has stopped)
will continue to destroy the bad cancer cells for the next couple of weeks, and the good cells should start to get back to
their normal form as well.
Saturday all I tried to do is sleep all day. They began prepping me for chemo early and plan on giving me the preventative
drugs at a regular 4-6 hour schedule all day long well before and after the chemo to keep the side effects at bay. It's 7:00pm
and knock on wood, today's treatment has gone well.
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