Chemo Day 1

Wow- what a day. Started off feeling great at 7am and ready to take on the chemo. After getting the boys to school and Jaden to Pam’s, Becky and I went straight to Pacific Oncology where we thought the chemo would begin. After taking my vitals I met with my Doctor to discuss today’s happenings.
He asked- How did the PET SCAN go?

Well I never had one and I was still waiting for his office to make the appointment. He says they can’t proceed with out getting the PET SCAN first. He said he doesn’t need the results before he can start he just needs it done because after the first round of chemo everything will already change. So after he strong armed the nursing staff they called clinics in Portland finally finding someone that could take me in right away. The problem with this is that a PET SCAN requires fresh radioactive material - so I needed to hope someone else had cancelled in the last 24 hours. Luckily after some searching by the nurses they found an opening at Meridian Hospital about 20 min away.

When I get to the room they immediately start an injection of the radioactive material which they will let flow through my body for 1 hour before they can do the scan.

Feels quite strange knowing that your body is now emitting radioactive waves. During this hour they kept me in a small room and all the walls and doors to this room were lined with lead plates. So at this point all I’m thinking about is how bad is this for me and everyone else?

The nurses assure me that I am fine and not harmful to anyone else or to my self. After my one hour is up they place me in the PET SCAN tube with my arms over my head for 20 minutes. Talk about an uncomfortable position to lie completely still for this long.

When it was all said and done I had to rush back to Pacific Oncology and be there by 1pm. If I was not back by 1pm then they could not administer the chemo today. And there was no way in hell I was going to wait another 24 hours before going to treatment. I had to really psyche myself up today to go in and did not want that feeling to go to waste. Becky and I hustled and made it to check in three minutes before 1pm.This time I was able to get in, skip vitals, and get to it. The nurse administered the IV drip first with an anti-nausea medication. After that completed, the first treatment began. The Chemo medication I am on is ABDV- four separate medications given consecutively during treatment, two through the IV drip, and two through injection (also through the IV).

All this time I am feeling great and ready to take in this fight. Becky left to go back to work for a meeting, so I just lounged around watching Spiderman 3 on Jai’s PSP.

After that I sat with the nurse and discussed side affects and what to do with them all. At this time we also discussed staging. The reason was- based on the PET SCAN, the doctor did find more cancerous tumors in my chest area. This does not mean that the cancer spread like it does in metastatic cancer it simply means there are other cancerous tumors in my lymphatic system. This means I have been elevated to a Stage II but this will not affect my treatment in anyway. This does not lesson the chance of being cured in any way. The doctor did confirm that I will do radiation once we have completed the 4 chemo cycles. Staging will be complete based on the impending results from the bone marrow biopsy. Should that be clear, my stage will stay a II... if there is any sign that the cancer has reached the bone marrow, then that will alter the stage further.

After letting the first two drugs drip slowly into my system the nurse then took a giant syringe filled with red liquid. This is the BAD stuff. This was the stuff that will cause most of the nasty side effects and it’s so bad that if for some reason the liquid leaves my vein it will immediately cause severe damage to everything it touches. Yeah- that scared me but all I can do is sit there and make sure I don’t feel a burning sensation. After that was done they did one more drug through a syringe and I was done for the day. Four hours later.

I left the building feeling good and starving. We got to Pam’s house after picking up my prescription nausea meds and hung out for a few minutes.

Not long after being there I really wasn’t feeling too hot. So we left, I went home to walk my dogs and make some phone calls. Immediately after my last phone call I got hit with the worst body aches and chills I ever had. I was not expecting this at all but with this type of treatment I don’t think you can be fully prepared for what may come your way. I loaded up on the layers of clothes, blankets and cranked the heater. Nothing worked I just felt horrible. My hands were like ice, my head felt hot - I just laid there in pain. I drank some warm tea and tried to eat some soup. Nothing got me warm. Finally I started to hyperventilate and panic. Becky helped me until I was able to calm down.

Once I got myself under control I took some Ativan for anxiety and nausea. This also makes you sleepy which is exactly what I needed. Shortly after, I was able to fall asleep for about an hour. Once I woke I was HOT. I kicked off the blankets, took off all my layers and just sat there. I felt like I just got hit on every part of my body. I was weak, tired and could barely speak. But after some time I did feel a little better. I ate some food and drank a lot of water. And now of course I feel well enough to type this blog.

Now, my body is just really weak and mentally I am in shock. I did not think I would have those side effects so fast and so hard. At least now I know what to expect the next time around and let’s see what tomorrow brings me.

Bone Marrow Biopsy

My bone marrow biopsy is complete and if I ever hear a doctor say the word biopsy again I am running away to Fiji! Two biopsy’s in two weeks just plain suck. The first was a biopsy on the tumor straight through the neck, which required the use of a “gun” to extract 8 samples of the tumor. This “gun” seemed to be an extremely violent way of removing the tissue and would send pain surging through out the neck every time he pulled the trigger. All 8 samples had to be from different sections of the tumor, so watching a doctor strong arm a giant needle through my neck was unpleasant in itself. Then tack on the amount of pain and discomfort both during and after?? No thank you.

Yesterday, I had the bone marrow biopsy. This was done right at the base of my back and they extracted the marrow from my hip bone. The initial local anesthetic was the most painful part. Then just tons of pressure is all I really felt, until about halfway through the procedure I felt sharp pains going through me. So the doctor stopped to add even more anesthetic. Unfortunately, they had a mirror on the wall and I was able to see the doctor twisting some strange metal object into my body. Turns out he is using what appears to be a wine opener but instead of a corkscrew shaped thing it is a hallowed out metal tube with very sharp edges to twist into my bone. Of course part way through the procedure I hear the doctor tell the nurses “oh look at this, I bent it” ya that was really comforting. So they get a fresh one and finish the job. By the time I got home the all the anesthetic was gone and I had to take some pain meds they prescribed and lay in bed the rest of the day but when you got a sore rear, there is no comfortable position.

CT Scan pic and thank yous

So I was bored today and decided to try and post a picture of an image from my ct scan. This is the best one I was able to take with my new fancy camera I got for Christmas from Becky. You can clearly see the tumor that I've circled.

I also wanted to say thank you to everyone for all the thoughts, prayers and support you have given me. I love you all and I want everyone to be ready to celebrate with me when this is all over with. Let's say Hawaii??? I'll need some sun after this, gotta work on my tan a little.