Chemo Brain

Hi there stranger.

   Sorry for the long wait.  I have been procrastinating. Not gonna lie. Don't let the title fool ya, although "chemo brain" is a very real thing.  I find myself forgetting things people tell me within seconds.  It drives poor hubby insane.  But I digress. 
I'm guessing you want to know the latest and maybe some of the things that have happened since my last post a long time ago. Again, my bad. 

   So, I typed up a post after my 3rd round but never posted it.  Here I am after round 6 now.  Anyhoooo....  Round 4 was my last dance with the red devil. Yay! Here's a picture of the little bugger:

 

   A nurse had to push it through my port by hand and she had to time it to finish in 20 minutes while watching for any reactions (ie burning, rash, pain). Apparently this stuff will burn skin on contact.  Yikes! 

All I know is 2 days after the red devil was injected, I felt like death and it was getting progressively worse with each round. I'm so glad that part is done. 

Rounds 5-8 was supposed to be the chemo drug "paclitaxel" or "taxol".  After round 5 though, my oncologist had to adjust the dosage.  You see, the second night after my round with taxol, my feet and hands started tingling and going numb.  Within a couple of hours, the tingling in my feet turned into shooting pains.  It was like electric shocks starting in my toes shooting up my legs (both of them, front and back) to my back and stomach.  This was happening every 2 seconds.  Nothing I did helped.  I tried moving them, shaking them, massaging them, relaxing them.  The pain was still there.  I couldn't sleep.  I downed 3 Tylenol and prayed for sleep.  I was able to get some shut-eye for a couple of hours until the pain started up again and woke me up.  I woke hubby up for some of his Motrin stash.  Downed 3 of those for a decent 3 more hours of precious sleep.  I woke up early with hubby the next morning.  He was heading to work and my legs would not let me sleep anymore.  I sat in my recliner in the living room to kill time until I had to wake up the kids for school.  I tried to tough it out the rest of the day, spacing out the Tylenol and Motrin since you can't have more than 6 in a 24 hour period.  It was getting unbearable.  After the kids and hubby got home that evening, my legs felt like fire!  By bedtime, I was crying to my husband.  I know he felt bad.  He felt helpless.  You see, I'm not a crybaby.  Not for pain anyway,  I gave birth to 4 babies, and I never cried during labor.  And that HURT!  This though, was something else.  Over 24 hours of this pain, I was exhausted, I prayed and prayed "Please God, help me." Over and over.  At 11:30 pm, hubby called the oncologist's office. They take calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  One of the oncologist on staff will call back, and that night it was my oncologist on-call.  He called back in 10 minutes and talked to hubby.  He said that we would have to come by the office the next day to pick up a prescription since calling in pain meds is illegal. So, another night of this. I down some Tylenol, and sleep came. Unfortunately, no one was able to get to the oncologist office before closing time the next day. Then finally, on Friday, my brother got off early as usual on Fridays and picked it up for me. He even dropped it off at Walgreens. He came over and we watched a movie and waited til the prescription was ready for pickup.  I fed him and had good quality time with my little brother.  We watched "The Book Thief" and ate leftovers and popsicles.  He left for a bit to pick up the prescription which ended up being some GOOD painkillers. That night I slept like a baby.  Those pills numbed everything. I only needed to take it twice more,  for the following 2 nights, just at night so I can sleep. By Sunday though, the pain had mostly subsided, it was more like a dull pain, but a rash started a few nights prior.  It started on the backs of my legs and on my hands and feet.  On Sunday, it was all over my legs up to my lower back and from the backs of my hands to my shoulders. 

On Monday, the shooting pains were almost all gone just tingling remained and I was thankful for that.  The tingling and that darn rash.  It. Was. So. Itchy!  Night and day I was scratching. It finally started to subside on Friday.

   The following Monday was Chemo Round 6. The rash was concerning to my oncologist.  By then the rash had faded, but the bumps and scabs from scratching were still there.  In the end, we decided that the lower dosage would be better.  That means though that my treatment would be longer.  9 more weeks instead of 6,  and I would have to come for each round weekly.  Nine more rounds in nine weeks.  This medication is called nab-paclitaxel. It is virtually the same as Taxol, but with some of the components taken out.  So, here I am second day and no pain! Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus!

   There, you are caught up.

I'll leave you with this adorable picture of my darlings, who have not missed one round of chemo since the beginning.

They were watching Baby Einstein.

 

Blessings and love everyone!

-L