June 10, 2009

• Whammo

  Holey moley.  This has been a whopper of a chemo cycle.  I'm just now getting toward feeling like I'll survive.  It's taken longer this time than previously -- I think.  It's hard to keep track of how long I feel like death warmed over.  All I know is that it's almost worse having that week of feeling normal because of how bad I feel the next 2 weeks.  Praise God, I've only got to do this 2 more times.  June 22 and July 13. 

  As I told Grant on the phone, I've been wondering about whether I've been giving my cat an involuntary course of chemotherapy.  She has been staying right up against me since March.  If I'm at home, she's on me somehow, either on my neck, legs, shoulder, etc.  I wonder if I excrete the chemicals through my skin.  I'll have to ask the oncologist next time I see him.  I don't think her vet would be able to answer the question.  She doesn't seem to be sick, but she's still sneezing all the time.

  One of the drugs is apparently so toxic that the nurse wears a special gown, puts a barrier between my arm and the IV connection, and checks several times to be sure the stuff is going into the vein, not into the tissues.  She has to put it in via special syringes rather than an IV drip, and it's dyed a putrid red.  I'm amazed my veins are able to handle this gunk.  It burns going in sometimes, and the nurse has to slow down.  I drink ice water and suck on ice while I'm getting this one because after 2 weeks I get sores in my mouth from it.  The cold constricts the blood vessels and keeps it from doing as much damage.  Last cycle, I didn't get the cold under my tongue, and that's where I got sores.  This time, I only got 2 small sores on my tongue, instead of deep cracks in it.  Sorry if this is too much information.  I suspect if I don't write about this while it's going on, I won't remember it later. 

  • 5:18 pm
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