Cancer Update – Part 10

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!