Hello everyone,
I’m going to continue where I left off on my last post regarding my battle with breast cancer and the start of my chemotherapy. I hope that maybe you find this interesting and also that maybe will be able to find something within to help you with a personal battle of your own or maybe someone you know. As always, feel free to comment or offer your experiences and advice, and God bless you and yours !!
Friday, day 5 of my first round with chemo. I couldn’t go to the bathroom, and hadn’t since five or six days earlier. I’d been taking fiber and doing metamucel heavily, all with NO results !! I finally gave in and gave myself an enema, and had some results, ( which I noted in my last post, and was a HUGE mistake by the way ) but I had abdominal discomfort for the rest of that day. Next day, saturday, as I was feeling less nauseated, I still had abdominal discomfort. I paged the doctor on call and he told me to watch for fevers, anything greater than 100.6 needed immediate attention. The next morning I woke up feeling near death. I had absolutely NO energy. I took my temp and it was over 101, I woke up my husband and had him take me to ER, paged my Oncologist and she said she’d meet me there.
Long story short, I was there for 5 LONG DAYS, in isolation for 4 of those. My son couldn’t even visit me for the first 3 DAYS !! That sucks. I had NO white blood cells in my body, and I had to have Neulasta and Neupogen to stimulate my bone marrow to make more WBC. VERY boring to sit in a bed for 5 damn days !! I’d been “ok” mentally til then, but I had this weird, “Walls closing in on me” feeling and asked my oncologist if I could start an anti-depressant. She said “I’m surprised you haven’t asked before now !”
On about day 13, I started to feel my scalp tingle and could pull hair out easily. I didn’t want to get upset by it, so I called in the reinforcements, some friends and family to bring over food and we’d have a head shaving party. It was the best thing I could have done !! I took control of it before it could take control of me. Remember that. We shaved my head and had fun, took pictures, which I will share and even my husband shaved his !!! Trust me, thats not a big step !!!
Every 3 weeks on a Monday I recieved my damn chemo-cocktail. Oh yum !! It’s not a margarita, trust me. I drank water by the gallon, ate all the time and became a napper extraordinaire. I’d sleep 9-10 hours at night, plus a few naps when I had days off. I worked all through my chemo, really wasn’t too bad because as a nurse I generally only work 12 hour shifts 3 days a week. My boss just rearranged them to suit my chemo, I loved her for that !! ( She’s no longer with our hospital )
Halloween fell during my chemo, and in the middle of a cycle, and I thought, I’m bald, let’s have fun with this. I went as Howie Mandell from “Deal or No Deal” and 2 friends were my “briefcase girls”, the quirk was that one of them was a dude in drag !! Trust me, my husband, would NEVER have a part in that, god bless him. We ended up winning 2nd place at a costume contest !!
The fatigue and nausea got progressively worse with each round, and I needed more meds. By the 5th and 6th rounds I dreaded going, even though I knew it was necessary.
I was SO glad to be done, the last one was December 11th, a very, very good day. By christmas I felt good enough to enjoy the day, just a little tired.
I’ll go more into this later and will soon be adding pics here for you to see my steroid bloated face and bald head !! What a treat for you !! As always, feel free to include your input.
God bless you and yours always,
Meredith – RNC
3 comments
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August 9, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Anonymous
On July 1st my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and it has been a roller coaster experience.
Have you considered using a Naturopathic doctor? The hosipital she goes to for treatment recommeded one for her and it is helping her with chemo.
Suppliments that work with her treatment. So far after three chemo injections at the hosipital she has had no feelings of sickness.
August 10, 2008 at 1:32 am
labornurse
Thank You for your comments.
I hope all is going well with the treatment your wife is receiving.
I have heard many pros and cons regarding Naturopaths, different opinions. I say If we can use less chemicals the better, since the chemo cocktail itself is about as bad as you can get.
I am VERY pleased she is not feeling very sick, as that is just about the worst part for most people! Just keep on it, as chemo is cumulative, and it may get worse before its all done.
Good Luck to you,
MeredithRNC
July 10, 2009 at 2:18 am
Christine
Dear Meredith,
Thank you for sharing your struggles. I am a newly-diagnosed person with breast cancer. I have learned in the past few weeks that hearing about other womens’ stories and journies is both helpful and healing for me. For this, I am grateful to you.
I have not yet had my surgery, only mammos, ultra-sounds, an MRI, and a (brutal) biopsy.
I have been spending many hours researching my cancer type, lumpectomy information, radiation information (which I have been told twice I cannot escape), and now, I am researching chemo information.
I am deathly afraid of it, and will do anything to avoid it.
I have been told my cancer was found early, is small (1.8 cm), and as of 7/01/09 – there was no axillary involvement. I thought this was pretty good, compared with other patients. It was hard enough to accept the diagnosis, surgery, radiation, and 5 yrs. of tamoxifen; but now a surgeon (2nd opinion) has informed me that she will “likely” recommend one round of chemo. The first surgeon did not.
Worst of all – I just want this thing out – I don’t have a surgery scheduled until the 31st – I think that’s a long time to leave it in and give it a chance to grow and spread. I could probably get an earlier surgery date with surgeon #1, but he wants biopsies of 2 add’l. “suspicious’ areas that surgeon #2 doesn’t seemed alarmed about.
I’m scared. I don’t know who to put trust in, and which surgeon is making the best call; and now I’m freaking out about chemo.
I am embarrassed at my fear and am hard on myself for not being emontionally stronger. I think you are a beautiful and courageous woman, and I wish I could demonstrate even half your strength.
I will keep up on your posts; thank you so much for sharing.
Best Wishes,
Christine