Cancer Journal - Monday October 7th-27th - Chemotherapy Begins

Day 1 – The infusion treatment went well. The new port, which was placed surgically on Friday, functioned well and the infusion itself was unremarkable. It felt like sitting in a room for three hours reading a book. If it wasn’t for the IV tower with a bag of fluid right next to me, I wouldn’t have noticed the difference. Later in the day, I started noticing the first side effects – slight neuropathy. I touched a cold doorknob and it felt hot. The air conditioning in my car was making my fingers tingle. And when I drank a cold drink, my lips and tongue felt a buzzing sensation and my throat felt like I was swallowing chunks even though the drink was all liquid. What I didn’t have at all on Monday was nausea even after I took the chemo pills in the evening. There was a significant amount of anti-nausea medication in my infusion so that might be the reason. I was told that Wednesday would be the hard day.

Day 2 – I woke up feeling relatively normal, maybe slightly nauseous so I took one of the anti-nausea pills before I took my chemo pills in the morning. I also had an egg sandwich since the neuropathy symptoms made a frozen smoothie unlikely to be a pleasant experience. I had an acupuncture appointment in the afternoon which will hopefully also mitigate future symptoms. However, by late afternoon/early evening, I started to feel a greater level of nausea so that I got in bed when I brought the kids home from school. I managed to have a light dinner before taking my chemo pills without anti-nausea medication but I went back to bed immediately after dinner.

Day 3 – I woke up at about 5am feeling a little nauseous so I went into the bathroom. By the time I sat down, the nausea rose up and I dry heaved for about fifteen minutes since there was little in my stomach, not even fluid. I took an anti-nausea pill before getting back into bed. There, I fell asleep until the kids were getting ready to leave for school so Christine took them. I got out of bed and have felt nauseous and weak not sure if I’m going to throw up again. I took another anti-nausea medication and made myself some toast that I have something in my stomach when I take my chemo pills this morning. I was tired and nauseous all day and got back into bed after picking the kids from school. I managed to have a little soup at dinner time so that my stomach was not empty when I took my evening pills.

Day 4 – I woke up feeling nauseous again. Immediately took an anti-nausea pill before eating a little cereal with milk before chemo pills. I managed to stay busy with errands all morning and, because it started snowing with a precipitous drop in the temperatures here, I ended up staying out until it was time to go to Tyler’s parent teacher conference at 4. I managed to eat a chicken patty at lunch time and ate some more chicken soup at dinner before taking my chemo pills. I’m getting into the habit of taking my anti-nausea medication before taking meals and also a 3^rd one in the middle of the day.

Day 5 – Today almost felt normal. I took the kids to school and ran errands in the morning. My nausea is diminishing and, after a bowel movement around midmorning, I almost felt zero nausea at times and had an actual appetite. I’ve lost ten pounds since Monday which is not sustainable. I was busy through the evening and felt very comfortable.

Day 6 – I took the kids to a woodcarving activity this morning and then ran errands starting around 4pm. My nausea continues to diminish either because I’ve gotten into a good pattern of nausea management with the pills or because the effects are less severe the further I get from infusion day. Again, I felt an almost normal lack of nausea with an appetite this evening. I didn’t get dinner tonight so I ate half a banana before taking my chemo pills.

Day 7 – I woke up feeling the sense that I need to have a bowel movement but with no success. I tried having a smoothie and some cinnamon toast at breakfast before taking my chemo pills. I did some driving in the afternoon, still had a sense that I had to go to the bathroom to no avail. But as far as nausea was concerned, I almost felt normal.

Day 8 – I woke up at 5am feeling that same sense of needing to have a bowel movement, again to no avail. Around 7:15, I finally had success. I ended up doing a little driving this morning after I drove the kids to school but felt the need to go to the bathroom again and I did. It seems like I can’t have a bowel movement for about two or three days and then I’m going to the bathroom several times throughout the day. I was also belching all afternoon and couldn’t stop. I don’t think it was anything concerning but really annoying. I was tired this afternoon so I decided not to drive this evening so I could go to bed at a reasonable hour.

Day 9 – Today was a day that almost felt normal. I had several bowel movements, mostly loose but not diarrhea. And the nausea feels almost entirely under control or absent. I did feel tired toward the end of the day and wanted to take a nap after getting the kids home.

Day 10 – I woke up this morning and realized I was extremely dizzy, one of the side effects of the anti-nausea medication. I managed to get the kids to school – the dizziness is diminished when I’m just sitting – and drove around running errands this morning. I came home and had another loose bowel movement before going to a Reiki appointment. After I got the kids from school, I watched a tv show with them so that I could stay seated instead of having to move around. I went drive this evening, again without concern because the dizziness is insignificant when I’m seated. I’m not taking the anti-nausea medication since I’m experiencing strong side effects and it seems that the nausea is either under control or absent.

Day 11 – I was still dizzy when I woke up this morning. The nausea is still under control so I’m not taking the anti-nausea medication. It was almost a normal feeling day. Went to the kids play after school and then ran some errands afterwards.

Day 12 – Still dizzy but not quite as strong. I did take some of the anti-nausea/anti-anxiety meds last night since that does not have dizziness as a side effect.

Day 13 – Looking forward to taking the last of the chemo pills on Monday morning. I can see the bottom of the bottle. I took some regular anti-nausea meds before eating and taking my chemo pills. I drove late on Saturday and made my goals for the week.

Day 14 – I took the anti-nausea meds on Sunday before eating and taking chemo pills. Almost felt like a normal day today. I think some of the dizziness is coming back.

Day 15 – I took the last of the chemo pills for this cycle after taking the anti-nausea and getting some breakfast. Very excited about the end of this cycle and getting a break. Later in the day, I started feeling very tired and nauseous. Christine had let me oversleep so she took the kids to school. I stayed home and later that morning, I got in bed until it was time to get Georgia from school. (Tyler left for an overnight camp this morning.) Christine took Georgia to violin lessons because I was supposed to go to a church meeting which I didn’t make.

Day 16 – I ran errands this morning. I didn’t take anti-nausea pills since I’m done taking chemo pills for the week. Later in the day, I started to feel tired and nauseous so I went home and got in bed. Managed to get myself up and pick up Georgia from school but went straight back to bed. I threw up at 4:30pm.

Day 17 – I’m writing this days later so I think Christine took Georgia to school this morning. I stayed home in bed feeling exhausted and nauseous. Diarrhea and throwing up at the same time. I wrote to my doctors and they had me come to the hospital where they gave me anti-nausea meds and fluids. My labs were all really good considering, except for Potassium which was only 1/10 of a point low. I spiked a fever at the end of the visit (which was about 6 hours) so they took more blood to check for infections. Everything came back negative.

Day 18 – Since I spiked the fever, they had me come back again this morning. Still feeling nauseous and with diarrhea all through the night. I tried to eat a smoothie in the morning before we left and threw up about a third of it in the garage at the hospital. My labs were still good again except that Potassium had dropped another 4/10 so they gave me fluids and Potassium IV. I brought in a stool sample from the previous night’s diarrhea episodes and those tested negative for CDiff or any of the other more significant GI tract infections. I threw up again around 6:30 this evening.

Day 19 and 20 – I’m taking anti-nausea meds on a regular basis and Imodium every time I have another episode of diarrhea which has continued unabated. The last time I threw up was Thursday evening but the nausea has been consistent ever since so that sometimes I wish I would throw up.