Chemotherapy round 3 was the most tolerable yet. The infusion itself was largely uneventful, though it wouldn’t generally be my choice of activity for the day after Christmas. And as it was the day after Christmas and the oncologist’s office had been closed the previous two days, it was quite busy. I’ve never seen it so packed. The whole thing took about an hour longer than usual because they were so busy. It was around four hours long instead of three. My husband ended up in the waiting room instead of sitting next to me because there were no empty chairs. And those that did empty filled up again quickly. I made sure to wear my mask as much as possible because being in a room full of people the day after Christmas seems like it could be a little bit of an infectious nightmare — many people have just seen other people and all of us have potentially questionable immune systems.
My infusion day was also my chemo nurse’s last day before retirement. I brought her a card to say thanks for taking such great care of me. Her daughter has POTS. It’s always amazing when the people taking care of you understand your illness(es). The other chemo nurse retired the following day, so I’m not sure who will be taking care of me next time. Both of the chemo nurses were notably competent, thoughtful and kind, so hopefully it’ll be someone just as good!
As usual, I returned the next day for my Nyvepria injection. That’s the stuff that helps me grow white blood cells.
Side Effects
My side effects this time were not as bad. Incidentally, I’d been off my low-dose naltrexone (LDN, which I take for my ME/CFS) for around 10 days at that point, because the compounding pharmacy had a delay of some sort and I couldn’t get my refill in time. I also, for whatever reason, decided to skip my established morning routine of Zofran (ondansetron), oatmeal and then daily meds. I stayed off the stomach medicine entirely, ate my normal breakfast and sometimes took my pills on an empty stomach. And I felt pretty decent stomach-wise for the whole of my recovery week.
I feel that being off of at least one of those meds lessened the intensity of the side effects. Unfortunately, I can’t know which one, but I suspect it’s the LDN. As such, I’m staying off it until after my final round of chemo. I’ll endeavor to stay off the stomach medicine as well unless I need it. Hopefully that’ll keep my side effects as manageable next time.
My bone pain from the Nyvepria injection was minimal this time. Such a difference from my painful experience with it the first time!
Here are my round 3 side effects:
- Blurry eyes
- Bone pain (not as bad this time)
- Breaking out (papulopustular eruption, “chemo rash”)
- Fatigue
- Gross feeling belly (“chemo belly,” not as bad this time)
- Heartburn
- Hyperactivity (from the steroids)
- Loss of taste (my least favorite)
- Mentally out of it (significantly during the first few days)
- Muscle fatigue
- Muscle pain
- Raw mouth
- Skin flushing (from the steroids)
- Tired/sore jaw (especially while chewing)
I didn’t have my usual few sleeping days after I came off the steroids this time, which was fantastic. I don’t like losing most of the hours in a day to sleeping. I’m tentatively attributing this change to the lack of LDN, as well.
I’m not sure how much of this might be caused by the chemo, if any, but my nose has been a bit runny and/or stuffy for at least a few weeks. My nasal passages are dry and prone to bleeding at this point, so I’m working on managing that. I read somewhere that chemo can cause that dryness and, of course, the dryness causes the bleeding.
Chemo Check-Ups
I’ve had two check-ups with my medical oncology team since the last blog post — one after round 2 (on December 20) and another after this round (on January 10). The one after round 2 was with my oncologist, since it was around the halfway point through my chemo regimen. He looked at my blood counts and other lab work and asked me questions about how I’ve been feeling. He said my body is tolerating chemo really well, so that made me feel good.
The subsequent check-up was with the nurse practitioner, as my check-ups generally are. She looked at that day’s blood counts and other lab work and asked me questions. She said my numbers are great and my body is handling chemo almost “miraculously” well. She was surprised to see my red blood cells doing so well. My white blood cells are good, too, but that’s less of a surprise because of the Nyvepria. I’m still making an almost full recovery after my bad week following a chemo infusion, which is really great and apparently not always the case with chemo.
I’m so pleased and grateful my bod is handling chemo so well.
Hair Loss
Hair update — there is none! I’m exaggerating. There is a little. But it’s quite sparse. The few hairs I have left were getting kind of long, so I buzzed them yesterday. I feel less scraggly now.
Actually, I have more hair left than I expected to have. I still have eyebrows, eyelashes, little face fuzzies, arm hair, leg hair, etc. Interestingly, I don’t have hair under my arms. I’m not actually sure if I’ll lose the rest of it at this point or if this is the extent of my hair loss. We shall see!
I’m really getting used to the whole being bald thing. I don’t wear hats unless my head is cold. So, people can see the entirety of my head. It’s fine. 😆 The stigma around losing your hair is ridiculous. Oh, we can see your skull skin. The horror! 😱🙄
Next Up
Next up is my FINAL round of chemo!!! Infusion day is this Tuesday, January 14. Then a little more than a week of feeling bad from the chemo. It hasn’t been as awful an experience as I was afraid it would be, but I’m so looking forward to being done!
I’m pretty sure I won’t need my port anymore after the final round of chemo, but I’m not sure yet when I’ll be scheduled to have it removed. It’s been extremely useful but I’m looking forward to having it out of my body.
And I have my first appointment with my radiation oncologist on January 30 to get things sorted for my upcoming radiation treatment.