Last week was my third treatment and with tax season over, my dad (an accountant) was able to take some time out of the office and took me to CINJ. Nothing like a little father - son bonding over IV drugs and pre-made turkey sandwiches.
The day came very close to being a real short one. Every treatment day starts with blood being drawn from my port to check various blood count levels to make sure I can handle the drugs. My platelet count came back as 74. It needed to be 75 for treatment. Before pulling the plug on the day, Dr. Moss had the nurse draw a second sample - this one from my arm - with the thought that maybe the first sample was diluted with a bit of the saline that they use to flush my port. Good call on the Doc's part as the new count came back at 81. Some platelets must have been playing Hide N Go Seek. Luckily we found them.
For the non-medically trained, if your platelets are too low, your blood may not clot properly. This could cause uncontrollable bleeding. Usually they don't worry until the numbers fall down into the 50s. And a platelet transfusion isn't very helpful as the platelets would only stay in the system for about 24 hours (according to Dr. Moss). This is something to keep a watch on. At some point my platelets will likely be too low for this drug treatment and we'll either have to stop, switch drugs or lower the dosage. Expect the unexpected...
Besides that, the treatment day went by uneventfully. The side effects this week were a bit more noticeable. The 2 days of fatigue stretched out to 4-5 days of fatigue. I was sleeping about 10-12 hours during the night, napping once or twice during the day and still going to bed by 12 or 1AM. Luckily this fatigue hasn't been as debilitating as that from chemoembolization (CE). I can still get up and do things, I just have a shorter window of time when I feel like doing them. During the CE treatments, I didn't want to get off the couch for anything.
Also this week, I felt a bit nauseous. And this is hard to explain to everyone because as soon as I hear the word nauseous, I think of someone kneeling near the toilet readying to retch at any moment. This is not the case for me. My nausea is just a period when my stomach is uncomfortable and food is very unappealing to me. Again, it's not a debilitating feeling. It's an annoyance that I mostly was able to control with Zofran and some pretzels. This lasted about 3-4 days and mostly occurred in the evening after dinner.
But after these side effects settled down, I started feeling good. Maybe the nice weather is playing a part in it, but I feel rejuvenated. Saturday, I went to Queens with Chris Riquinha to see the Mets beat up on the Nationals at their new stadium. Wonderful day with great weather. Sunday, I spent some time in a hammock reading Angels and Demons (the literary equivalent of fried chicken - quick and enjoyable but hardly gourmet). And I'm looking forward to making a trip this weekend to Connecticut to see some friends.
With this week off from treatment, I'm looking forward to having energy, sunshine and fun. But then again, expect the unexpected...
Looking forward to your next posting John!
-Sarah
Posted by: Sarah | May 10, 2009 at 10:41 PM