The Chemo Drugs
I am on the following chemotherapy drug cocktail (click on their names for more information):
Next Friday I will receive only the Gemcitabine and Xeloda. The week after, I’ll get all three again.
Weebles Wobble
…but they don’t fall down.
Actually, they kind of do start to fall down but they are most fun when you’re knocking them back down over and over again. That’s me.
I’m a weeble wobble.
I keep getting back up and they keep knocking me back down.
Case in point: today I am getting more chemo. Just when I started to feel less like an alien from the planet YuckyGoober, they haul me back in for more!
Actually, I was thinking I’d wait one more week to build up my strength before going for more chemo. I feel way better than I did last week but I guess I wanted just a few more days of feeling good and normal before doing more chemo. But what the hell else do I have to do? I’ll just sit at home, feeling so much better and get extremely frustrated by my inability to go anywhere, do anything, drive myself, etc. I’d just end up sitting here on my blog complaining about how miserable I don’t feel but how unable I am to play in the world! So, after discussing it with Honey and Dr. Kane, we decided to go ahead with it today.
We’re changing the meds in the cocktail and she says it shouldn’t have as many bad side effects as the old combo (specifically, we’re removing the oxiplatin which supposedly caused all those nasty cold sensitivities I was experiencing. Still on Gemcitabine and Avastin (to block off the blood supply to the tumor in addiction to what the emboloziation is supposedly still doing). And adding Zoloda which is a pill I take at home, twice a day for 21 days. Yay more pills!
Doc says if the side effects get nasty at home, we can always remove or back off the Zoloda at home and pick it up on its own again after these other two run their course intraveinously (which I am getting here today for about 2 hours). But she assured me it won’t be nearly as bad as the embolization aftermath was. She did mention, however, that my body reacted far more sensatively to the embolization than most patients do. Well, duh….this is ME we are talking about! I’m UNIQUE! HORRAY!
So here I sit, waiting for my labs to get back from the lab so I can pee in a cup and start this drip drip drip business. Mostly, I’m waiting for my nap to begin!
Yesterday I ran around with daddy and had fun! It was fun just to be out and about: went to Shrinky Dink, stopped at my favorite used CD and movie store, picked up some candle-making supplies from the craft store (I want to try that this weekend), and had my dentist check my night guard because I think I caused a crack in it, I’ve been chomping so damned much in the middle of the night. It was fun to be out with him but I paid for it last night. I was in so much pain and so totally exhausted by the time I dragged myself to bed at 9:00. Needless to say, I slept really well straight through the night!
Dr. Kane also tested my hormone receptors on my tumor. The night sweats, hot flashes and lack of sex drive and no periods are driving me nuts. I guess there are some cancer tumors that are more likely to metasticize to other areas if these particular hormones were to come up positive on the tumor. I have the specific hormones and levels on a piece of paper but it’s across the room and all we really need to know is that they all came up negative. So she prescribed me some horomes (aka hormone replacement therapy) to help get those other side effects under control. MORE PILLS! HORRAY!
Well, I’m exhausted. It’s definitely nap time. And I think I’m ready to give the nurse the “specemine” she’s requesting of me!
P.S. There is a group of people in the “stall” next door. All middle-aged people. They’re here to support their loved one in this chemo she’s getting, I guess. But they’re all loud and obnoxious and acting like this is some kind of resort or spa or something. Theyr’e the kind of people you’d see lounging at the ski lodge at the top of some mountain, sipping irish coffees and smoking capris. I kind of want to go over there and kick them all. They are loud and annoying. This is not a vacation. This is not a spa. We are not going to Cherry Creek after this to get a coffee. We are mayyyyybe stopping by Best Buy to get me a PSP to play with and then dragging our happy tired asses to bed to sleep for the next three days.
This must be her first round. Good luck to her. She will soon discover how soon the party ends in this place. 