A Typical (or Atypical) Chemo Treatment

I went in for another treatment today. I haven't had a break since they cut my dosage by 20%. Apparently, my body can handle that and instead of lower my blood counts, my hemoglobin and white cell counts have both moved into the normal range. It's nice to know that I have an immune system and I'm not currently anemic, but honestly, I miss those surprise weeks off.

I had my blood draw and appointment with Dr. W on Friday so I didn't have to spend as much time at the center today. My treatment started at 9 am and I was out of there by 3 pm. I would have been done earlier, but my body chose this treatment to start an allergic reaction to one of the drugs. I was just sitting there, talking to another patient and scratching my hand. Then a little bell went off in my head... if I have an unusual itch, I am supposed to inform the nurse. I looked down at my hand and my whole palm had turned bright red. Plus it was slightly swollen. As soon as the nurse came back, I showed her. She brought over my study coordinator and another more experience chemo nurse. The other nurse said that this is a typical reaction and many patients develop this reaction after being treated multiple times. They stopped administering the drug and gave me a hefty dose of benadryl which almost instantly stopped the reaction. After the dose of benadryl, they restarted my chemo and I was fine after that.

The benadryl really knocked me out though. I'm usually really hyper from the steroids when I get home. Today I came home and slept for two hours. When I woke up from my nap, there was a sandwich from Subway on my bed next to me. It took me a minute to remember that Jim had asked me if I wanted him to pick on up and had handed it to me (I set it on the bed). Weird.

I'm going to spend the next two days resting and recovering because I leave for NYC on Thursday and I want to make sure that I am in tip-top shape. We have lots of plans and I don't want anything to slow me down.