Mid-week chemo...blah...

So mid-week chemo BLOWS. It blows BAD. In case you missed it…they had to change my schedule up last week because the clinic that I usually go to on Sundays to get “un-plugged” is no long open. So as of last week I had to switch to mid-week. I took the weekend off last weekend due to the schedule change and to let me platelets come back up. So this week I had chemo on Wednesday. I took the day off and went in like usual. Then went home and crashed. Typical chemo day.

Then Thursday I got up and drove 2 hours to Ponca City for a conference. I got home about 4pm and wanted to DIE.

Today I got up just fine. Went in to get unplugged and now here I am at work…again…wanting to die. I am SO tired. I just keep forgetting that chemo, on a cellular level, is like running a marathon. My muscles don’t feel it…but the rest of my body does through wanting to just curl up and sleep for 3 weeks.

Wednesday was interesting though. Everything started out fine…my platelets had made a remarkable change going from 97 on Friday to 160 by mid week which was GREAT! I got hooked up to my IV and everything was progressing as usual until I started to sneeze uncontrollably. Then I noticed that my palms and feet were itching like they had poison ivy all over them. Then I started breaking out into hives. About the hives time was when the nurses stopped the chemo and gave me a massive dose of Benadryl and steroids. Funny thing about drugs like that going directly into your blood stream…I kind of felt like I was back in the hospital getting morphine again. I could totally feel it go all through my body. I felt like I was on a roller coaster. I could feel my eyes dilating. It was crazy.

About the time the steroid was supposed to kick in making me feel like Super Woman…I crashed. The Benadryl worked its magic and I was itch-free and ready to snooze. I’ve never dozed at chemo, although I see a lot of the older people doing it. Having done it now I’m thinking that’s the way to go. It might have been the nap plus the steroids but when I got home Wednesday I felt like a new woman!

If I went alone to chemo and didn’t have friends coming to visit me each time…I would most certainly ask the nurses to put me out. A fellow blogger once said that at this point in his treatment he was tired of approaching it like John Wayne and decided he wanted all the pain/sleeping meds they could give him just to knock him out at chemo. Now I see what he meant!

Luckily my allergic reaction to one of the drugs is something that is pretty common for lots of people at this stage in the game. The nurses were really quick to act and made sure that I wasn’t in any discomfort. So now I’ve got amped up Benadryl, steroids, and Zantac that I will take the night before/day of my next four treatments. Or rather…my LAST four treatments. YAY!

The other good news is that the doctor’s office was able to work it where my insurance will pay for me to get home health care to come “un-plug” me on Sundays now so I’m back to my Friday-Sunday schedule for chemo. YAY! No more having to feel exhausted and nauseated at work! Woohoo!

I seriously don’t know how people go get chemo and then go to work. I guess we all do what we have to do…but call me a wussy…I just don’t have it in me to be polite and serving when I’m hooked up to something that is pumping poison directly into my heart.