Update...

Good news first- my bone marrow biopsy came back clean!

It has been one week since my first chemo treatment and I must say nothing has been what I was expecting. The side affects have not been easy to deal with, although they have been much different then what I was told.

Friday, the 25th- I woke up tired but feeling pretty good. I took the opportunity to stay in bed for the better half of the day. Midday I started to get the hiccups along with nausea.

The nausea was expected and I have two different prescriptions to help deal with it.
The hiccups on the other hand I just thought were not a side affect and just normal old fashioned hiccups. Shortly after the hiccups started heart burn kicked in!

Now I know everyone reading this has probably had hiccups and heartburn after devouring a bratwurst dog covered in sauerkraut and spicy mustard- now just imagine eating 5 of those dogs in a row and the heartburn that would follow. This went on throughout the day and night. I tried to sleep but kept waking up to feeling like I was going to vomit and hiccup my spleen out of my mouth.

Saturday the 26th, I awoke to the hiccups and heartburn. Now that I am on day two of this I am convinced it is a side affect from the chemo. Both the hiccups and heartburn continued on throughout Saturday. Naturally, I’m all over the internet looking for remedies since my nausea medication isn’t doing anything. I try all the tricks to no success.

Sunday, the 27th I awake and the hiccups, nausea and heartburn are all gone. My energy level is up a lot and I’m feeling pretty good. I guess I got excited too soon. Now, the mouth issues begin, which I was told may happen. First my tongue is itchy and any food that touches it does not feel right.

Then I start feeling pain through out my jaw and it begins to go down into my teeth. This continues through out the day and I decide to just try and let some Advil deal take care of it. Strike one, Advil does not work. A few hours later I take some IBUPROFEN, strike two nothing happens. Then right before bed I take a Darvacet - strike 3 nothing happens. I just give up and go to bed. Tossing and turning, waking up to the mouth pain every couple hours.

Monday the 28th comes around and the pain is worse. Now I can no longer take a bite of any food with out sending pain through out my mouth. By night fall the pain has gone from my jaw and into my head. I can’t sleep and no pain medication is helping.

Tuesday the 29th I’ve had it, feeling miserable I call the doctor. I speak with a nurse who consulted with my doctor and they decide to give me Miracle Mouthwash and Vicodin. They stated that if by Wednesday afternoon I still have pain to call back and they will have me come in.

So Tuesday evening I take the mouthwash and it basically numbs my entire mouth (the miracle mouthwash is a combination of lidocaine, diphenhydramine, and Maalox). This is great as it took care of the itchy feeling I had on my tongue. But the pain is not on the skin – it is deep inside my mouth. I take a vicodin and pray that it helps. Now I am thinking that this pain may be caused by my wisdom teeth. I was told years ago to get my wisdom removed but just never did and never really experienced any discomfort from them.

The nurse stated that it could be that my white blood cell count has dropped and that I am no longer able to fight off any inflammation caused by the wisdom teeth.

An hour or so after taking the vicodin I am feeling worse and decide to take another. This does nothing for the pain. All I am feeling is like I am completely intoxicated - and in pain.

Again I just try to sleep it off with no luck and no sleep.

Wednesday the 30th comes and I call the doctors office and explain the Vicodin didn’t help either so they book me for Thursday morning. I just deal with the pain all day Wednesday with out taking any pain meds. I guess not taking any pain meds caught up to me that night as I had the worst aches and pains all night long. Everything from my back, to my elbow, shoulder and even the pain from the bone marrow biopsy came back. It was by far the worst night since the first night of chemo. I took a Darvacet at 4am hoping it would just knock me out for a few hours.

When I woke up this morning, I had sharp pains all though out my right arm. I had no idea what this was but I was on my way to the doctor anyway. When I got there he was worried that the pain in my arm may be a blood clot which can be very bad. So he sent me in for an ultra sound. They took some more blood to check my white blood cell counts and gave me a stronger pain medication that is a steroid called Dexamethasone. The ultra sound came back with no signs of blood clots. So the doctor said it could be that the tumor cells are breaking down and going into my blood stream. Since the tumor is on my right side and it is my right arm that hurts it seems logical.

He also said to remember that they are injecting me with poison that kills both good and bad cells. So this may just be part of the treatment process especially since the pain in my arm is the same arm they injected the chemo in. But he is glad that I came in and he wants me to continue to report everything that I am feeling. So I have taken the steroids this evening and I am hoping I can get some good sleep in. The pain in my arm is pretty severe, the pain in my jaw has gone down a bit and so has the pain and aches I had through out the rest of my body.

It’s hard because as soon as some strange side affect goes away another one immediately kicks in. This all plays a big role in taking that positive attitude away that I started with. I’m going to try my hardest to stay positive and all your love and support really does help. I love reading all the comments so keep em coming. I have one more week before my next treatment and I hope it is a good week with little to no problems.
It’s super bowl weekend I need to be able to enjoy it!!! Pats over the Giants by 20.