I feel like I’m so behind on my updates! Let me catch you up on everything.
The Education Session
Our chemo education session was on Friday, November 1. It was initially scheduled as an in-person appointment with the oncologist’s nurse practitioner (NP), but she was at home with COVID, so the office called me to change it to a video appointment. However, the NP couldn’t do video from home, so it was finally changed to a phone appointment. I was fine with that. Of the three options, phone takes the least amount of energy.
The NP called at the appointment time and one of the first things she wanted to talk about was fertility. She mainly wanted to make sure the oncologist had discussed it with me and confirm my decision.
She moved on to talk about the specific chemotherapy regimen I’ll be doing. It’s called TC, which stands for Taxotere (docetaxel) and Cytoxan (cyclophosphamide). Those are my two chemo drugs. TC has a number of side effects, which we covered in varying detail when discussing side effect management.
One of the most concerning side effects is essentially losing my immune system. For each of my infusion (chemo) days, I will be going in the following day to receive a Neulasta shot with the goal of increasing my white blood cell count. That injection has its own major side effect — bone pain. I will be taking loratadine (Claritin) to manage bone pain.
To manage some other major chemo side effects — nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, fluid retention and pain — I’ve been recommended some over-the-counter medicines and prescribed some stronger meds, as well.
We discussed neuropathy (nerve pain). It’s an important topic because I already have neuropathy from my chronic illnesses. In an effort to prevent the additional neuropathy the chemo drugs are known to cause, the nurses will be icing down my hands and feet during infusions. There’s some evidence doing so can help keep the drugs from reaching my extremities. There’s also some evidence for compression doing similar things, so I’ve purchased compression gloves and socks to hopefully increase my chances.
We touched on hair loss briefly. I’ve prepared myself about as well as I can for that one at this point. She did say hair loss usually happens around 3 weeks into chemo, so that would be just before my second round.
I’ve realized that in addition to my eyebrows and eyelashes, I’ll really miss these little guys. I love my fuzzies. 😆
I asked about precautions that need to be taken to prevent me from contaminating other people with the chemotherapy drugs. It’s not nearly as strict as my research led me to believe, but it is important for carers to wear gloves when cleaning up bodily fluids and generally take care not to make contact with them (or wash extra well if it happens). I’ll need to flush the toilet twice and we’ll all need to wash our hands after touching anything that could contaminate.
Finally, we discussed that allergic reactions can happen during chemo and that I should alert the nurses if I feel anything different once the infusion begins (usually within the first 20-30 minutes). She also told me to bring my prescription numbing cream with me to my first infusion appointment so the nurses can show me how to numb my port.
The NP said she would email me the information packet that accompanies the education session. I waited until Tuesday and then followed up, since I hadn’t received it. I did finally get it yesterday and that’s why I’m only writing about this now.
Chemo Haul
Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time ordering chemo support supplies online. I might do a whole post about it at some point, but I read some articles and watched some videos about what different folks found they needed to bring with them to infusion appointments as well as have at home for side effect management and support. I tried to get most of the stuff that was recommended by multiple people. It was a lot and it definitely added up but I think I’m about as prepared as I can be for the experience.
Port Placement Surgery
Wednesday, November 6, my port was surgically placed on the left side of my chest and into my jugular vein. The port is how the chemo will be infused into my body. The main purpose is to make the experience more comfortable than having to find a vein every time they want to give me chemo or draw blood. Apparently it still hurts, though, and they give you prescription numbing cream to put on before it’s going to be used, so that makes me nervous.
The appointment was fairly uneventful, which is really what you want in a surgery. It happened in the Interventional Radiology department of a somewhat nearby hospital. I wasn’t all the way out for this one, they just gave me a drug to relax me. I’m not sure what it was, but I was still having anxiety at the standard dose, so the surgical nurse had to give me extra. I asked a lot of questions during the procedure because I’m me and I want to know all the things. And I was drugged up. 😆
I was pretty sore the rest of the day. Yesterday I was still sore but I was able to get off the Tylenol. Today I’m still sore but even less so. It seems to be healing up well. Now, will it be all healed for chemo on Tuesday? Doubtful and I’m kind of dreading that. Here’s hoping that numbing cream is stellar. 😬
The Impending Chemo
This morning we met with my medical oncologist for the final time before chemotherapy starts on Tuesday. He wanted to get baseline blood work, check in, answer any questions that had come up for me and have me schedule the rest of my appointments. After chemo on Tuesday, I have my Neulasta injection on Wednesday. Then I meet with the NP once a week for the next two weeks, so they can check my blood and monitor how I’m coping with and responding to the chemo medications. For subsequent rounds, I’ll only need to meet with the NP the week before a new round.
I’m definitely anxious about it. It’s gonna be a bad time. There’s no way around that. But the cancer must die and this is how I do that — and I’m grateful I have the opportunity to do so.
Thanks for reading, friends! ❤️