Chemo Round 2!

Arrived at the Cancer Agency for 10:30am today. Phil and Abby came with me and Auntie was going to stop by around 12:00pm to see how I was making out and give Phil a break.   I was in fine form, just a bit sore from my port a cath insertion.  I have 2 incisions one in my neck (it's kinda like a puncture, you know ice pick style!) and the other is the actual port a cath.  Dr. Hiayashi set it all up to be ready to go and boy oh boy did it ever work like a hot damn!

Abby and I

Auntie and I

Sandhu and I

I was up and running within minutes of arriving and had the herceptin run first.  They ran it over an hour and then I had to have a 30 minute observation period. All went well and I felt fine. I ate some lunch and on to the cyclophosphamide.  They could have run this over 20mins but last time I got this funny nasal congestion and head zingers as I called them so they ran it over an hour instead to try and alleviate those symptoms. It seemed to work because I didn't have any symptoms.  The goal is to have no symptoms so things were going smoothly.  I had some guest visitors Kimberly came to visit she works over at the Jubilee and Sandhu stopped by too.  It was nice to pass the time and see my good friends.  Auntie came by too, but didn't stay too long as apparently I was quite popular and the chemo room wardens would only let me have one visitor at a time. Rules are rules I guess.  So they started the docetaxel last.  If you remember, after the massive reaction that I had last time they reduced the dose of both the cyclophosphamide and the docetaxel to 80% of the protocol as to alleviate me having another reaction.  They also front end loaded me with IV doses of benedryl and dexamethasone to try and combat any reactions.  I was quite dopey and comfortable and Abby came to sit with me for a bit, the drug was going to run over an hour.  I started to feel my tongue get funny and thick and didn't say anything for a couple of minutes to my nurse.  I finally decided I should say something and she came over and I was laying right back in my chair.  I had told her that last time it wasn't until I stood up that the reaction set in so we decided to sit me upright to see if it was a true reaction........and BINGO then it started....another full blown reaction with shortness of breath, chest heaviness and thick tongue.  OMG!! I couldn't believe it. So out came the big guns, curtains closed, nurses everywhere, doctor flying into area, holy crap not again!  So they fired me full of more IV benedryl, gave me a ventolin nebulizer that I breathed in, and some hydrocortisone IV.  If you wanna see dopey that was me!  It settled down within 15 mins or so but very scary. As soon as it started happening Abby jumped up and ran to get her Dad, she was ok just worried but her Dad kept her calm.  My biggest fear is they are going to want to stop the protocol and I am not going to get to have the full benefit of what I have started!  I'm in it to win it now, so I want to finish!  I'm half way through the roughest part I got to get through this.  Who would have ever thought I would have been begging to get chemotherapy?  I will see Dr. Bernstein my medical oncologist on Feb 18 to discuss all this, she is out of the country right now at a conference over seas, so I imagine she may even call me when she gets back. I am confident we can work something out but I am not willing to throw in the towel yet.  Come on body don't fail me now!
What was really nice was after 7 hours at the Cancer agency we came home to Monique and Doug having pizzas ordered and we had a nice dinner.  Then we decided to shave my head biker style!  My hair was falling out and as I called them, they were like shards so I decided to take control and not have little hairs everywhere.  Monique started the process and then my fellow baldie friend did the honours of the close shave with the razor!

Doug and I

smooth as silk

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