Day: June 6, 2023

6 June 2023

It didn’t take much time for the first side effects to show up. One of the drugs I take has a side effect of diarrhea. Another has constipation. The constipation drug won out.

I’ve only been really constipated once in my life and that was on a canoe trip with grad school friends into the Quetico in Canada. I think I was three days without a bowel movement.

The much more usual case for me is diarrhea. Mom was a firm believer in laxatives and enemas when Archie and I were kids. My first experience with diarrhea was with her obsession that her kids were wormy. Archie and I would annually be required to down two bottles of of citrate of magnesia and try to poop in round paper cups without spillage – it never didn’t spill over. The doctor would then do a fecal smear from the overabundance and check for worm eggs.

Then it was the spring cleansing with castor oil. She would chase us around the house with a tablespoon of the stuff. Finally she got smart and hid it in orange juice. For years, I couldn’t drink oj without thinking of the taste with castor oil in it. Then it became enemas at the least hint of not pooping on demand.

She not only believed in it for her kids but for herself. I swear I would be in the dorm at Ole Miss and diarrhea hit me out of the blue. I would call home and tactfully raise the question if she had taken a laxative. The answer was always yes. I think I had sympathetic diarrhea for years. When she took a laxative, I pooped. In essence, unless more is forthcoming this morning, I’ll be forced to take a laxative. That’ll be the first time since my last colonoscopy 9 years ago.

Tie the constipation to chem fog and slight tremors of the hand this morning and I can say the side effects are affecting.

I noticed the brain fog when I started my breakfast routine and realized I was getting things out of sequence. Yes, I know that’s silly but as I age, I find it comforting to have a routine for breakfast preparation. First, it’s get the French press out of the washer along with my coffee cup. Then add sugar to the cup, a pinch of salt to the press (enhances flavor), grind the coffee and put the kettle on. Then I reach for the bowl for my fruit mix and top with yogurt. Then the health tests: sugar, blood pressure, dissolved oxygen, temperature and ointment for arthritis. This morning I managed to scramble all the routine. Then when I started my morning walk, I forgot my sunglasses, my handkerchief and face mask (I only wear it if I have a prolonged conversation while on the walk) and thumb supports for arthritic thumbs. I did walk 1.3 miles.

The slight hand tremors made me a butterfingers this morning. It’s lessened as the morning has gone on but it’s still there.

Surprisingly, I got enough sleep last night even though I was getting up every four hours for nausea pills. They must work because I had no nausea. For some reason, my alarm went off between the 4 hour periods and brain fog had me take a pill when it wasn’t due. I figured, what the hell? It probably didn’t hurt me. I’m back on schedule now.

When I got back from my walk, Jose was in the drive waiting for me to open the door. He’s putting the skim coat on the drywall as I write this. Little by little, I see a light at the end of the tunnel and Chad has promised no more trains coming through.

On a brighter note, when I was undergoing infusions, an older lady was brought into a cubicle next to mine. I later found out she was undergoing radiation therapy and was having a hard time: nausea, mouth sores, etc. I had brought along some of the King Leo peppermint sticks. After Jimmie and I talked about them, I sent her some and unbeknownst to me, she had sent me some. I took out three sticks: one for me, one for the nurse Pat, and one for the lady. They immediately recognized the sticks with the King Leo writing on the wrapper and they both broke into smiles. They were thrilled with the candy from our childhoods. It seems like Jimmie and I are not the only ones to wax nostalgic. I didn’t know so many people had been exposed to the product.

I head in for my immune booster at 4 pm.

Stay tuned!

5 June 2023

Last night I took the steristrips off. It was good to get rid of them and it relieved a little of the tugging when I turned right or left in the bed. I had some really good dreams. I have one dream in particular that recurs and it did last night. It’s my favorite. I may blog about it one day. It put me in a great frame of mind.

The day started at 4:30 am. I beat the alarm by 30 minutes. I got through my morning routine and Tom showed up at 7:15 for the trip to Holy Cross. He went in with me and then had to wait. It was after 8 am before they took me back into the infusion center for a 7:45 am appointment.

My nurse is Pat and she seems super efficient. That may also be because I hear they are short-handed with staff and she has to be. Pat had trouble with her computer but eventually she got logged on and began the process. She’s good at explaining every step.

First, she cleaned the port and inserted the needle. I read that it’s a good idea to but a lidocaine cream on it to numb it and then put Press and Seal so it’s not rubbed away by your clothing. I did that before I left the house and she complimented me on doing it. I didn’t even feel the needle going in.

She flushed the port with saline to be sure it was clear and functioning, drew blood, put in the order for my drug cocktail, and then proceeded to give me an anti-nausea drug and a steroid (to prevent muscle aches and pains).

Taxotere is the drug that will take so long to administer. It’ll take at least two hours to infuse into me. Even the next time will probably be an hour and a half. They want to check my reaction to that particular drug. She still anticipates it’ll be 6 hours. At the moment, we are waiting on the pharmacy to prepare the drugs.

I found out they administer each drug individually. They started with Perjeta which is a monoclonal antibody. Next will be the second monoclonal, Herceptin. Both are to help your immune system. Perjeta will take an hour, Herceptin an hour and a half.

After those two, it will be Carboplatin and Taxotere. The Carboplatin is another hour and the Taxotere is two hours. Hopefully, the Taxotere will will eventually be done to one hour after several sessions.

12:20 pm
Between the first and second drug, they wait 30 minutes to see if I have a reaction. So far, I’ve finished Perjeta and no reaction. Currently, I’m about half way through the Herceptin. By my calculations, the earliest I’ll get home today is around 4:30 pm. They will watch me very closely with the Taxotere.

Pat says that I should be fine today – feeling good, good energy. The day after I’ll still be OK. By day three, I’ll be a little less OK and by day four, I’ll feel like s**t. Then I’ll level out and back to normal.

To top off the morning, I got a text from Chad that my alarm was going off at the house. I swear I didn’t reset it after I canceled it this morning. I remember walking out of the back door and locking it without the alarm. In any case, I gave him the alarm code to shut it off. Hopefully the police didn’t show up and try to arrest the work crew.

The nurses run from one unit to another addressing beeps on the IV’s. Every one works very hard here. There are several volunteers on the ward that come by every so often and ask if you need anything. They provide warned blankets, a pillow, and bring around snacks. They provide coffee and juices. I brought a coke (Mother used to give me a coke to sip to settle an upset stomach), a Whole Foods sandwich, a Fungi apple cut up, and one of John’s Rice Crispy treats.

Dr. Arnaout (hematology oncology specialist) stopped by and again explained about doing the chemotherapy first. He also said I would certainly have a mastectomy at some point but the oncology team all agreed to try to shrink the tumor first. He said he would see me again for my next session on the 26th.

With all these infusions, I’ve been a frequent visitor to the bathroom!

1:00 pm
They just started the Taxotere. Pat cautioned me to let her know if I feel anything differently than I do now. I think this is the one they are most concerned about and also why they administered the two monoclonal antibodies first.

I explored my surroundings a little and made it out to the atrium. They have two walls of plants.

5:54 pm
I’m home! It was 8 hours of drips into my port. They changed my time for the immune booster injection from 1:15 tomorrow to 4 pm tomorrow. It seems I have to have 24 hours elapse before the booster. I finished the last drip a little after 4 pm. Pat says I check in, they take my vitals and give me the injection and I’m out.

She also said to take Claritin for 5 or 6 days after the injection. Holy Cross apparently did a study on the effects of Claritin with the booster. The booster affects the stem cells in the long bones and boosts the production of white blood cells. That causes your bones to ache. Claritin mitigates the effects of the bone aches.

Since hurricane season started June 1st, it was time to get my palms trimmed. The neighbor across the street has a lawn service where he does lawns and tree trimming and he agreed to do them today for bulk trash pickup on Wednesday. He’s done mine for the last 2 years and he always goes above what I ask him to do. The yard looks great, the trees look great and he only charges $600. He does about $1200 worth or work.

The way I look at it is one treatment down, thirteen to go.

Stay tuned!