Now let's talk about chemo treatments. Obviously they will vary with the type of cancer you have and that is going to be a fairly complicated discussion between your doctor and you. I will offer these words of advice...find out all you can about your possibilities via the internet so you know what to expect. I still think even with my research and the doctor's help I didn't know enough about the possible side affects and what could treat them if they developed. That said here we go.
Compared to chemo the surgery was a walk in the park. I decided to go with an experimental treatment for colon cancer that was available to me. The nausea was to be reduced, although my hair might thin out, chances were that I would not lose all of it, and compared to other forms of treatment, the side effects weren't many, so they told me.
Chemo began in June of 2008 shortly after the surgery and I was on schedule to have Wednesday and Friday sessions. I was also sent home with a port a pack of chemo which was set to run out on Friday afternoons. This way I could get my shot of neulasta (let me tell you this crap sucks and is very expensive besides) but more about that later.
My chemo drip was a combination of meds called eloxatin, plus Zofran for nausea and Proclorperazine, coumadin because I developed a blood clot and of course the nasty neulasta. Wednesday sessions began at about 1pm and after initial weight check, blood pressure, temp, and blood draw to check white cells the treatment began. Since I had the chest port put in that involved hooking me up and sitting in a nice reclining chair watching tv or sleeping until about 4:30 or 5:00 when the meds ran out. Then getting unhooked from the drip, get attached to the port a pack and going home.
Now I know I shouldn't complain because obviously I am alive if writing this blog but some of the side effects are really cruddy. First...severe and I do mean severe reaction to cold. That included touching, drinking and eating, entering the frozen food aisle in a store and anything else cold that you can possibly think of. Believe me when I tell you that nothing compares to eating and drinking warm tuna, milk, orange juice (when my stomach could handle it) ice cream which I had to eliminate altogether because once it was warm it was liquid.
Second...THRUSH, a most disgusting symptom that occurs in your mouth as all of your good cells are killed off by the chemo you become susceptible to other nasties. With thrush you develop white patches on the tongue, inner sides and roof of the mouth and guess what? No one told me about this one. It can become severe if left untreated so you must take antibiotics and reduce foods with sugars and yeast in them. This wasn't really a problem because during the chemo believe it or not I developed an aversion to sugary foods and couldn't stand them. Meat on the other hand became a necessity of life and in steak the more rare the better. Barely cooked was how I came to order beef with some very unusual looks from waiters if I were eating out. Alcohol was definitely out of the question but every now and then if I felt up to it a shot of rum tasted pretty darn good because it is not a liquor you have to drink cold so it worked. Oh and did I mention that the thrush can also get into your esophagus and if really bad your liver and other parts of your body?
Finally we come to the neulasta. Who ever invented this stuff certainly has a death wish...at least among cancer patients. Now I know it is supposed to do good but if you are aware that as an adult you pretty much stop making white blood cells. The neulasta forces your body to produce them from of all things your pelvis and hips. I can't tell you nor describe the agony of this process. All I will say is that for the entire weekend I was pretty much confined to bed until Monday morning when I had to return to school and even then sometimes I just couldn't do it. Oh and one more thing, it gives you really, really, really, bad diarrhea. Sorry to be gross but it does.
Now let's talk coumadin...again one of those drugs that is supposed to help you but it's side effects can be random or spontaneous bleeding. NNNIIIIIICCEEE! So in my case I had decided to return to work as soon as I could, no time to lay around feeling sorry for myself was what I figured but that can also have drawbacks. Most of the time I was pretty good but this one particular day I happened to be teaching my bio class and sneezed pretty badly about three times in a row. Next thing I know my nose is dripping gobs of blood and my students are yelling. I quickly sent one to get my friend Sabrina who came running back with of all things a tampon to stop the bleeding. Thank God we have prep rooms between our bio rooms because it actually worked. The kids got a great laugh out of it and consequently when I explained what I was going through they were real troopers. They knew exactly who to go get depending on what class I was in just in case it happened again. There are times when kids can really step up to a challenge and I must say that my students during 2008-2009 were some of the best that I ever had. We probably didn't get much done compared to other years because of me being in and out of school but better people I could not have asked for. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart...even Xhelil.
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