It went downhill from Day 3 real fast!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009 6:32 PM, EDT
I am going to try to go back a week ago where I left off~cannot believe I only got into Day 3 and have already hit bumps in the road...okay here we go~~~~
                     One Week Ago
Started chemo treatment Wednesday. Wednesday and Thursday seemed to be "so far, so good" days. With the exception of Thursday being an unexpected traveling day back and forth to my Oncologist~I had called Thursday morning when I noticed that there was blood in my line (the pump). Was told to 'come on down' and have it looked it. Should not have been blood in my line and they flushed it out and all seemed well. Came home took a nap and woke up to more blood in my line but not only in my line but also around the outside of my port site. Ugh! "What is going on?!" I called the office at 4pm and the nurse said she would stay until we got there. She had to give me a whole new pick line and pump even though it had appeared to be working fine and normal. The only conclusion we came to was that there was a lot of added pressure put on the site when straining to go to the bathroom (constipation was a side affect from pain medication).
Friday the nausea began. Not too bad, but enough to take my nausea medication, which seemed to do the trick. Friday evening I noticed the middle of my chest starting to irritate me on the inside. Didn't think much of it. Woke in the night Friday night several times and finally decided that my chest hurt.  It bothered me most laying down~"of course it did, b/c laying down is what I enjoy to do while sleeping at night!" I made it through the night but as morning approached it got to the point where I just held my chest and prayed for the pain to go away~was a strange feeling because I didn't feel to be having trouble breathing nor did it hurt to breathe so we were referred to the ER by the on-call Oncologist. Arrived at CMMC around noon on Saturday~had an EKG (heart looked good), had CT Scan of chest area which consisted of knocking me out with 50 mg of Benedryl because I had a mild reaction to the CT scan dye once before (wooooo-eeee! that was a close second to anesthesia!). The scan also showed everything to be OK in chest area and blood work came back OK. The doctor mentioned the steroid medication (given before my first chemo treatment) that can cause irritation/infection of the esophagus which was where he believed my chest pain was coming from~kind of like a bad case of indigestion (I guess). Anyhow~we got more medication that helped treat that and numb the area internally. Left the ER around 4:30-5 that afternoon and came home and slept! I could not wait to go the next day to have the chemo pump taken off!

As the day went on I started to slowly feel like I was recovering from the chest pain. If I remember right Monday was an okay day~weak, feeling tired but like I could be heading back to where I was before I started chemo~that would be very welcoming at this point.

There are of course so many little things that have gone on emotionally, mentally and I'm sure physically I have left out due to my mind being fried by the meds and internal chaos. Okay, so Tuesday (the 21st) we met with my Radiation Oncologist after treatment and discussed my weekend and what's new in the world of my mouth! Ugh! So, we (the doctors and myself) have come to the conclusion that other than the infection I am fighting I am experiencing chemo side effects quite early and rapidly~very sensitive to it. Anyhow, back to my mouth~I am no longer able to brush my teeth, skin on tongue, inside cheeks, throat and in side nose has begun to shed and peel~already have sores in my mouth caused from chemo~which of course means more medication. Got some numbing "miracle mouth wash" that helps the healing process and also numbs my mucous canals so that I can eat with less pain. And now taking when it becomes too painful to even talk. And add diarrhea to this, a lovely green~(like the color of a frog-my cousins understand my references to frogs;-).  After leaving my treatment yesterday I had the worst anxiety attack yet~so add another medication to the list...although I have to admit, it felt good to release those emotional toxins.



Saw Oncologist today and definitely have an infection of some sort in the mucous canals and also in GI area (they think it's too early to be having side affects from radiation, but haven't ruled it out since I am already pretty red and sore in the vulva area). So we have a heavy duty antibiotic to fight this infection and try to stay ahead of what's to come next. Just ate at 4:45p and it didn't come back out 10 minutes later so things are looking up! Woooo-hoooo! And on the other end of things I'm talking a little funny either due to pain or numbing the area. But right now at this very moment I'm feeling minimal pain~mostly a lot of discomfort but was able to sit and write this much so that's a good thing.  If I am on here writing then you know I am doing well enough.  Did not expect to only get into day 3 and have so many side affects pop up but there's the update in a nutshell. Going to think about eating, take my miracle mouthwash and then decide if I still want to eat, hmmmmm....