Tuesday, January 27, 2015 (Day 1)- Today I woke up feeling a little light headed but I ate my breakfast and went back to bed until 10:30AM. I have felt pretty good much of the day but very tired. Mom came over about noon and made us lunch and then we sat on the couch and watched TV until about 5:00PM. I pulled some Lasagne soup out of the freezer for dinner and heated that up and made some garlic bread. It was a nice and easy dinner to throw together for my family. I think I will be heading to bed early tonight. It is only 7:00PM and I am exhausted. I know tomorrow (Wednesday) in the past has been when the side effects really hit. I guess I will just wake up and see what happens tomorrow. My fingers are crossed that this round will be easier than the last three. I can't wait until later next week when I feel good and never have to feel like this again.
(Day 2 & 3) Wednesday, January 28th and Thursday, January 29th- Yesterday all I did was sleep. I was only awake for about 3 hours total. About an hour for breakfast, an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner. I took a bath after dinner and went straight to bed. I didn't sleep too good. I kept getting hot flashes and had to go to the bathroom even though I didn't drink a lot. Today (Thursday) was a better day. I still slept a lot but I kept my naps to about an hour each time. I honestly don't remember how many naps I had today but I was still awake a lot more than I was yesterday. I haven't really felt nauseous today, more just fatigued. My good friend and neighbor, Leslie brought us some delicious chicken noodle soup and rolls along with a chocolate cake (my reward for finishing the 4 AC treatments) for dinner last tonight. Tonight she brought us pizza and bread sticks. I am so humbled by my good friends and neighbors. I never thought I would be one to want or need to accept something as simple as a dinner but it sure has been a blessing. With Jeff working and me feeling like this we wouldn't get dinner until 8:00PM if these great friends didn't pitch in. I love them so much and I am so humbled by their generosity. They all work and have family's of their own but they still take the time out to make my family dinner too.
Friday, January 30, 2015 (Day 4)- Today I woke up and felt a little bit nauseous so I took my pills. I only took a 1/2 hour nap all day long even though I did not sleep good last night. I have terrible congestion and a cough thanks to the chemo. I ended up going in the other room to sleep so Jeff could get some rest. Regardless I have had pretty good day overall. Mom brought me lunch about 12:30PM and then we headed into the doctor's office at 1:15PM so I could get some fluids. I met some really nice people there today and had some great conversations. I love when the room is so friendly and we can all talk openly like we did. There was even a young guy, Drew who was 22 years old and hasn't even been married for a year yet who was getting an infusion for MS. He said he has an aggressive form of MS and will probably be in a wheelchair in 6 months. He was so positive and nice and very caring. He was diagnosed with MS after only being married for 4 months. What a journey he and his new wife are going through. I will pray for them every day. I also talked with two other ladies who have had the same AC chemo as me, one has only had 2 of her 4 treatments. We can relate a lot in our side effects while the other one had no side effects at all. She is very lucky! I feel great right now and I really hope that I am doing great and that the side effects won't come back to bite me!!! I hope the fluids give my body a boost for the weekend and by Monday I will be as good as new. I also talked with the chemo nurse Lisa about what to expect on Taxol. She told me there is very little nausea involved in Taxol but that I might feel more body aches and tingling in my hands and feet. She said with the dose dense version (4 treatments) that I am getting I may not get the tingling in the hands and feet. She sees that more in people who have the 12 weekly doses. I sure hope Taxol is good to me, I could really use a break from all that I have been put through the last few months. I can't wait to finish chemo and start radiation, I know those 5 weeks are going to be hard as well. Just getting there every day is half the battle. I can't wait to be done with all of this and I can finally see an end in sight. I know summer is just around the corner and I can't wait to play hard. I think Jeff is going to take off summer semester as well so we can live life normally for a few months. We want to camp every weekend and swim every weeknight in our little above ground pool that we bought last year, and have lots of BBQ and swim nights with our neighbors who have been so good to us. Life is to short and we want to make up for all the time we lost these past few months. Of course when fall arrives he will go back to school but I think if we have a super fun summer then we will be ready to get back into real life and face whatever challenges are ahead. Tonight our friends Heidi and Rob are bringing us dinner. Everybody seriously is so good to us. I even feel a little bit guilty because I could probably make my own dinner tonight but judging on the past doses of AC I was down and out even on Friday nights. I love my friend and family to the moon and back. I have such a great support system behind me.
Saturday, January 31, 2015 (Day 5)- Today we took Jake to the vet for an annual check up and immunizations. We talked with the vet about his decline. The vet said that he is approaching 13 years old and that labs only live to about 14 years old. I have a feeling we will be losing him soon. He has started drinking a ton of water and peeing while he sleeps. He also is hesitant to go up and down the stairs, it has been a challenge. I can't imagine losing my boy, he was our first kid. We got him as a puppy and he has always been a part of our married life. I have felt pretty good today but have been tired. It is hard to sleep because every time I lay down I start coughing, I have a bad deep cough right now and a lot of nasal congestion. I still do not have all of my energy but considering I do feel much better. We got take out for dinner tonight and rented a couple of Redbox movies. I don't want to go out and about because I know my counts are low and I do not want to get sick. Hadlee came over to play with Kaci so she is entertained. They haven't seen each other in a while so they are really happy to get together and play. Overall today was a pretty good day.
Sunday, February 1, 2015 (Day 6)- Today I have been so tired and weak. I even had to take my anti-nausea medication. I slept really good last night and didn't cough a whole lot. I was able to take a good nap this afternoon too. I made dinner but had to sit down the whole time because I kept getting light headed. I do not have as much energy today as I had on Friday and Saturday. I guess the side effects are coming back to bite me a little bit. I hope I can go to work tomorrow but until I wake up tomorrow I cannot make that decision just yet. If I don't feel well I will stay home and rest the whole day as hard as it will be but I do not want to set myself back any further and need to listen to my body and take it easy when it wants me to. I can't wait for these side effects to wear off because after this I will never have to feel this way again.
Monday, February 2, 2015 (Day 7)- Today was a real crappy day! The side effects have definitely come back to bite me. Last night I started with a very sore tonsil, ear pain and my left eye was hurting me. I did not sleep well due to my sore throat, ear and my eye as well as my cough that is still lingering. When I woke up I nearly fell down, I was so lightheaded. Jeff got up and took care of the animals and I had a bowl of cereal. After I went to look at myself in the mirror and my left eyelid is so swollen it is affecting my vision, who knows where that came from. I went back to sleep and woke up around 11:00AM but stayed in bed until 1:00PM when I went to heat up some soup for lunch. I had the chills so I took my temperature and it was 99.9, I knew if it got to 100.4 then I had to call the doctor. Well it didn't take long to get to that point. I called the doctor at 1:45PM and they said to come in. They took my blood and did a Nadir visit. My white blood cell count was lower than it ever has been and they believe that is where the fever is coming from but with the other symptoms I have going on they prescribed an antibiotic that I have to take for 7 days. The doctor said to take Tylenol to try and get the fever down and help me feel better but because my platelet counts are so low I cannot take Ibprofin. She said with the antibiotic by tomorrow evening the fever should break. It's not looking like I will be able to go back to work tomorrow either. I took my temperature two hours after the Tylenol and now it is 100.9. I cant win! It's okay though it will make me stronger, right?
Tuesday, February 3, 2015 (Day 8)- Today was another very bad day. I didn't get much sleep last night due to my fever, ear, eye and throat pain. About 3:00AM I was desperate so I decided to take Ibprofin anyway against the doctors orders. It did take my fever away but not before I woke up sweaty from head to toe. I have never sweat so bad in all my life, even my pillow was soaking wet from my head and face I had to throw it off the bed and use another pillow. I woke up at 6:45AM and my fever was gone but my eye and throat have hurt me all day long even to the point that it makes me cry. Here I am this evening and my fever is back in full force even 101 at one point. I took Ibprofin again but will wait until tomorrow to call the doctor. They told me to call this afternoon if it wasn't gone and I was two days into taking my antibiotics but I feel I want to give it another day. I was so sad that I couldn't go to work today, I feel so alone in this house all by myself with nothing to do other than to watch TV. If I at least had some energy I could do things around the house but I don't. I am very limited to TV and Internet. I wish I could read my People magazines but my eye is so swollen it is hard to read the small print. I feel so weak today, weaker than I have felt this whole time. I just pray and pray for some relief but as of yet I am not getting it. All I can do is cry today, it is such a bad day!!!!
Wednesday, February 4, 2015 (Day 9)- I had a much better day today since my fever was totally gone by the time I woke up this morning. My throat felt a little bit better this morning but I still took Ibuprofen to feel better. I am nervous to take it because of the blood thinning factor but I do believe it helped the swelling in my eye but I know I need to be careful with it. My eye is a different story, I woke up with it more swollen than it has been and it was very hard to see out of it but by this afternoon the swelling went down a little bit but it is still painful. When I woke up this morning and looked at myself in the mirror I immediately started crying, I was crying because I feel like I look so different, which I do but I was upset because I wanted to go to work today and I didn't know how I could face everybody with the way I looked. I immediately said a little prayer and got a nudge to go to work and face it, they need to see how hard this is for me too. I got ready fast since I only put a little mascara on the one eye. I am glad I went because Terry and Steve said the nicest things to me. Steve really does understand how hard this is for me, he is the best owner anybody could ever work for, I am truly blessed. I only worked about 6 hours but it was a lot more than I thought I would be able to work. My energy still is not at 100% but hopefully tomorrow it will be. I am also hoping the antibiotics will kick whatever it is that is going on with my eye but maybe it is a side effect and antibiotics won't help that, only time will. Tonight my good friend Leslie came over with her two girls and while the kids played we talked and talked. She is honestly the most generous, genuine person I know and I am so thankful she is my friend. It felt so good to just hang out and feel normal since the last week and a half I have not felt normal. Afterwards I was able to make a good dinner for my family, take a bath, watch American Idol and call it a night. I would say today was a good day!!!!
Thursday, February 5, 2015 (Day 10)- I did not sleep well last night, I was up coughing all night long. I think I got about 5 hours of sleep if that. When I woke up my eye was more swollen than the previous days, I was so discouraged because now I think it is a side effect and not a bacterial infection that will go away with antibiotics. One day I will look normal again (I hope)! I went to work anyway very exhausted and not liking anything about the way I look. I was late again though and got in a little after 8:00AM but did stay until 3:00PM. Yesterday Jeff said the most beautiful thing to me ever, he said to Kaci in front of me that he wishes he had my eyes and Kaci said why to take some of mom's pain and he said not only that but so that she can see how beautiful she is through my eyes. I can't stop thinking about that and I will cherish is forever!!! I really needed that because I have been so emotional this week. My energy is almost near 100% and maybe it would have been had I got good sleep last night. I coughed all day long and am a little nervous about going to sleep tonight because sleep is all I want right now. Overall it was a good day and I am excited to go to work tomorrow but upset that it is Friday because that means another treatment on Monday and without knowing how it is going to affect me it scares me to death. I do hope to go into work for part of next week and that is what I am trying to focus on but I am also prepared just in case I can't go in.
Friday, February 6, 2015 (Day 11)- Today is Friday, a day I have learned not to like because it is my last day at work and I have another treatment on Monday. I know eventually I will learn to look forward to Friday's again. I worked almost a full day but I did leave for a lunch break because today was my aunt Karen's last day of chemo and we all went to Olive Garden to celebrate. It was such a special day for her and I was so glad to be a part of it. She has been during chemo since September. I would like to say that my energy is at 100% today but I don't think it is. I was still a little tired and run down today. My eye appears to be getting better but both of them were running like crazy today. I sure hope my eyes clear up in the next couple of weeks while I am on Taxol, there is a chance they won't clear up until I am done with chemo because watery eyes is a side effect of Taxol too. I am looking forward to the weekend, we have a lot to get done around the house and go grocery shopping but tomorrow I think we will go to the movie again with the gift cards that we received from Jeff's friends at work and then grab some dinner. I at least need to get out of the house for fun before Monday comes.
Saturday, February 7, 2015 (Day 12)- Today is day 12 and I still don't feel like I have 100% of my energy back. I felt pretty good though and we went to Walmart to grocery shop and then headed to lunch and a movie. It was a beautiful warm day outside and just the sunshine and warmth made me happy. I just wish the day would have went by slower, it went by way to fast. My eye appears to be almost all the way back to normal, there is just a little bit of swelling in the corner but nothing you can see unless you look up close. Of course my eyes are still running a little bit but not super bad, okay they were running bad when we were at Walmart and I hit a guy with our cart, after that Jeff took over driving the cart and when we got home he told Kaci a very exaggerated story of how bad I hurt the guy, I only bumped him a little bit and I felt bad but eyes were clouded with tears when it happened. We just laugh about it now. Tomorrow is cleaning day, yuck! I wish we could have another fun day out but the house must be cleaned and we don't have any money for it anyway.
Sunday, February 8, 2015 (Day 13)- We got the house cleaned today, yay!!! I am making dinner for my family and then we will take it easy the rest of the night. Kaci wants to paint my nails later so they are done for tomorrow morning. Today I have been a little tired and have just taken it easy in between all of my chores. I am super nervous for tomorrow with starting the new regimen. Like Jeff said earlier today, he doesn't expect it to be a walk in the park but compared to what I have been through on AC he hopes it will be easier for me. I hope I can get some sleep tonight but knowing me I will be up worrying about tomorrow. I guess once I get the first round done at least I can somewhat know what to expect, of course there is always a chance I might get some surprises like I did on AC.
Side effects this round:
Little nausea and tiredness
Fever over 100.4
Eyelid swelling
Watery eyes
Sore throat with ear pain
The same rash I had on my face and back has now spread all over my arms even though I have taken a Claritin and Benadryl every day. At least it is off of my face!!!!
Side effects I didn't have:
Heartburn, not one ounce of it. I will continue taking 2 Pepcid's a day even through Taxol. It was a nice break to not have to experience heartburn this round. I guess being proactive works out sometimes.
I still have all my eyelashes, eyebrows, nose and arm hair. I have a feeling I may lose them on Taxol as everybody I have talked to loses most of them. Maybe I will be lucky since I am not on the 12 weekly does but on the 4 dose dense version.
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