I'll start with last Friday's appointments - I left work at 11:45 to get to the clinic for my bloodwork appointment at 12:00. As it has been all the way through, my blood counts are perfect! My next appointment was at 1:00pm to meet with my Oncology nurse and Nurse Practitioner. I answered the usual questions about how my week went - no changes from the week before. She was not surprised to find that I didn't have any side effects from the new drug. During the first week I was getting daily injections for bone density, so we asked the Nurse what we could do with the spent needles because we were uncomfortabel just tossing them in the garbage...she said she'd talk to the in-house pharmacy to find out what we could do. She then took my vitals (which were normal) and then left us to wait for the Nurse Practitioner.
Paul was getting very fidgity waiting for the NP....he was dangerously close to hacking the computer to check his Facebook page! Luckily she arrived just before he could do so.
She was amazed at how the Docetaxel and the Radiation were working to shrink Ted. The measurements she got were 5cm by 3cm....but let me explain....because the tumours have now "exploded" in to little bits and are no longer a united front this measurement is just the area that the little bits take up and there are voids between the little bits. So it feels very lumpy now and I can feel that there is soft tissue on top of the little bits (tumours are not soft tissue). I'm sure I'm not explaining this so that you can get the remotest idea and the only way for anyone to understand is to actually feel it....Sorry! But that's just not happening!! Just take my word for it that it's all good and Ted is a dead man! Emily has also been slaughtered!
The NP had also talked to the Nurse regarding our question of what to do with the spent needles after my daily injections and then she immediately spoke to the Pharmacy again. As it turns out I shouldn't be having the daily injections while I'm on Radiation! This is information that would have been beneficial a week ago! But it's all sorted out now and Paul doesn't have to worry about sticking me every morning, well at least not for the next 8 weeks! I will probably start them again after Chemo & Radiation are done while I am waiting for Surgery. Paul is not so happy about having to stickme with needles at all but for the past week he did a good job of it. And will do it again when the time comes. He's becoming quite the capabale nurse!
After my appointments were done I headed to the lake for the weekend! We took two cars this weekend so that Paul could return to the city for his Buddy's stag party on Saturday night. This meant that I got to spend some quality alone time relaxing in the hammock all afternoon and visiting with passersby! It was a great afternoon! I made my way to the entertainment in the park that evening with our friends and was in bed by midnight. We had decided that I would actually get a full nights sleep by staying at the lake instead of being at home and waking up when Paul came in after his night out with the boys (of which he reports that he had lots of fun, a great night!). I awoke at 9:00 am (a full 9 hours of restful sleep), was all packed up and gone by 10:00 am in order to attend a fundraiser with our friends at 1:00pm that afternoon....we also had a lot of fun there! We met some other people who have gone through Cancer and have beaten it so we got to swap stories.
As most of you probably already know I make no attempt to hide the fact that I have Cancer. Sure I wear my wig to work and when I stop at places on my way home but other than that I go without....unless I'm outside then it's a head scarf or just my favourite hat, a pink one made special for our upcoming golf tournament. Yes, I wear pink now....it's not as bad as I always thought. When I am just wearing the hat you can definatley tell that there's no hair under it, much easier than you can tell with a head scarf so I get some interesting looks and I hear the whispers. The people I like most who notice are the ones who actually stop me to ask how I'm doing...complete strangers who are just concerned for me or know what it's like to go through this. It's really sweet and usually after our conversation they smile and wish me well or congratulate me for getting through it as well as I have...it makes me feel really good to be able to tell my story to someone and know that they will pass it along to others.
Moving on.....
#2 Phase 2 treatment went smoother than the first one! This time they stuck me in one shot not the usual 3 attempts to find a good vein.
My Chemo appointment today was scheduled for 9:15 am with Radaition just before it at 8:50 am. Radiation was over quickly as usual and I headed up to the Chemo clinic to check in. 9:15 am passed and I was not called in....9:30, no call.....9:45, still no call! At 9:50 am I returned to the receptionist to inquire if I would be called in soon and was told that they were waiting for my drugs to arrive. By 10:15 I was in the chair ready to be poked by as many needles as it took to get a good vein....surprise, only one this time! I have thin veins. I drank 3 bottles of water before arriving at the clinic in hopes of saving myself the agrivation of multiple needles, it worked! I just had to use the washroom many times! What a pain in the butt that is when you're all hooked up to the IV and covered in blankets and frozen slippers and mitts! But I managed.
I will have Radiation every day again this week. So far there has been no discolouration or burning. I was told after my appointment on Friday that I should not "go tanning" this weekend...I thought it a little odd that they felt the need to tell me not to go and worship the sun, it's quite obvious to me that I shouldn't be doing that. If I were to lay out in the sun I would end up with a much darker square that is the treatment area and that could be detrimental to future treatments. I now worship the shade! I was also told NOT to use sunscreen as it has metals in it. This was a slight cause for concern because there are times when you just can't avoid being in the sun and the rest of me would need protection from it! As it turns out I can use sunscreen just not on the treatment area. Good thing I still have some of my tan left from Mexico so I'm not pastey white all summer!
I returned home around 1:00pm this afternoon and have been working in our home office ever since. The CASE 'N DRUM OIL 5th Annual Charity Golf tournament is next Monday July 19 and after working on lots of little things we are so much closer to being fully prepared for it! This week the committee will work on getting everything physically in order. This week will pass quickly I'm sure and before we know it the tournament will have come and gone.
For those of you who don't know and I don't know if there are many of you who don't because I also make no effort to not talk about our Charity golf tournament....you'll know that over the past 4 years we've made sizeable donations to the London Regional Cancer Clinic. I never thought that I would ever need to benefit from generous donations made to the clinic like ours. Each time I go for a Chemo treatment I have a different nurse and I make mention of the tournament and the fact that half of our money rasied goes to support their work. I ask each of them what they think the clinic needs because I have the option to direct our money to specific things within the clinic. More often than not they look around at the clinic and say "there are so many things that we need replaced". In the past we've always directed our funds to Chemo chairs and the Patient Assistance fund and the nurses agree that these are both very beneficial. After sitting for 5 chemo treatments I can tell you they are definitely in need of new Chemo chairs. Sometimes the foot rest doesn't stay up on it's own any more and they use a stool meant for the staff to prop it up....leaving the staff to stand as they administer treatments. This can be very uncomfortable for them as well as the patient. The Patient Assistance fund is used by those patients who don't work for the type of wonderful company that I am so lucky to be employed by. There are patients who have no health benefits and no way to pay for some of their treatments because they aren't covered by OHIP either. I think it's safe to say that we will again direct our funds to these two areas.
Wow! That's a lengthy entry.....I'll save the rest for the next entry!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment