Every four weeks I start a new "cycle" of the chemo pill. At the beginning of every cycle I meet with my oncologist. At the beginning of every other cycle I have scans. Today was simply a doctor appointment. I will do scans again in 4 weeks. I no longer need to do weekly blood tests. I have my blood tested every 4 weeks when I see my doc.
At today's appointment...
HIGH: I start a new antibiotic tomorrow in hopes to find my voice again. I will be on it for 3 weeks.
LOW: I have been on this particular med before and I'm not a huge fan of the side effects. Looks like I have 3 weeks of an upset stomach ahead of me :(
HIGH: I didn't lose the crossword puzzle today!
LOW: Neither of us won... Kristin decided to create her own puzzle today with the help of a crossword website. It was AWFUL HARD! I become frustrated after finding 6 words that didn't exist in the key and slightly nauseous from scanning the size 9 font.
HIGH: I'm still on the clinical trial... barely!
LOW: My white counts and neutrophils have both continued to drop. I need 1000 neutrophils to stay on the trial. I'm at 1100. (The typical person has around 5,000-7,500)
HIGH: I have muscle pain.
LOW: I have muscle pain. It started 2 weeks ago in my chest. I thought it was muscle pain at first, but when it lasted a week, and then 2 weeks, I really started to wonder what it could be. I simply woke up one morning and I felt a pain in the right side of my chest. The aching has increased over time and spread to my back over the weekend. By the end of Sunday my lower back was pretty painful. Then Tuesday night it had spread to my entire back and made it very difficult to breathe. The pain has increased significantly - enough that it put me into tears. I was reminded today that muscle pain is a side effect (that's why it's good news. At least it's not a tumor). I need to increase my yoga and get a massage or two... but not sure when that is going to fit into my schedule (and wallet, ha!). Tonight I became so aggravated with the pain that I had to take a percocet... and I FINALLY feel some peace. Hopefully this side effect does not sick around like my repertory issue...
HIGH: My hour long wait for my refill of the chemo pill only lasted 20 minutes today!
LOW: No low, got to go home early and celebrate another successful appointment with the blue box Mac-n-Cheese :)
You forgot the cupcake!!! That was a delicious and notable high. It will be repeated as long as we continue to have Wednesday afternoon appointments when Sarah's Cake Shop Truck is conveniently at Siteman!
ReplyDeletethis post makes me sing "high low, low high, she threw it out the window, the window, the second story window..." I don't know the rest of the words, and I might be making that song up. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time!
ReplyDeleteYay for the highs!