Expecting A Repeat Of Last Time
It’s Saturday morning after my second FEC chemotherapy treatment. So far; so good. Chemo last night was uneventful – Yeah! Although my appointment was scheduled for 5:00 p.m., I finally got called back at 5:45 p.m. Luckily, my nurses were very efficient, so from the moment I was brought back to my room until I left, I only spent about 2 1⁄2 hours in treatment.
After Nat and I made a pit stop at the grocery store on our way home, we had a late dinner, curled up on the couch, and I think I woke up to go to bed around 11:30 p.m. Even Franki (my most vocal cat) must have realized that it wasn’t necessary to start chirping and minking around on our bed at his usual 4:30 a.m., but refrained until 6:30 a.m. So in essence, I slept in this morning!!!
No effects from the drugs have set in yet. I started Zofran (anti-nausea med) last night and will continue to take for two days every 8 hours. If any nausea continues after that, I’ll treat with a one Zofran every 12 hours for a couple of days, and then switch over to Compazine (another anti-nausea med) on an as needed basis.
The good news about my FEC treatments – that I learned from Dr. Cristofanilli – during this past Thursday’s appointment was that the remaining FEC treatments should be the same as my first treatment. What this means is that because I experienced no vomiting, I will not have vomiting for the remainder of chemo. I can expect to have a repeat of the same side effects after each treatment.
This is comforting because I will not be faced with the unknown from here on out. I know that I’m going to have a good day today; tomorrow and Monday will be uncomfortable (nausea and physical aches and pains), and on Tuesday and Wednesday I should have more and more moments of “normal,” until by Thursday and Friday I should be on the upswing to feeling really good. Then I can count on the two weeks following to be pretty normal weeks. I can certainly live with this!!!
As a note – my white counts were good after getting blood work done on Wednesday. Dr. Cristofanilli was pleased to tell me that, but before he could say anything else, I interjected with a BIG smile – “So does this mean that I won’t have to have a Neulasta shot??!!!”
“Well, I suppose we could try going a week without Neulasta,” Dr. C. said tentatively.
I quickly followed up with, “If I didn’t ask about not having the Neulasta, what would you have said?”
“I would have told you you needed to have the Neulasta shot. Your white blood counts are good, but they’re not high. Plus, if we skip a week of Neulasta, your white blood counts may drop significantly after tomorrow’s FEC treatment, and we might have to postpone FEC treatment number three.”
“I don’t want to have that happen, so I want to go with your recommendation to get the Neulasta shot on Saturday.”
After chatting a bit more, Dr. C. proposed that I start taking Darvon (pain med) before I get the Neulasta shot tonight. This way I might be able to “turn off” some of the nerve endings, thus lessening the discomfort I felt last time after Neulasta. I’ll try that tonight and hope that I’ll have a better after- Neulasta day.
So given that I’m feeling like normal today, Nat and I have planned to go down and walk the Race for the Cure course. While down there, we’re going to scope out a meeting place for Team Millenbah. Kelly and Mary will send out a note to the team once we’ve found a place so that all team members know where to meet EARLY Saturday morning. Once we meet, we’ll go have a team picture taken at 7:00 a.m. – right before the festivities begin.
Given that I’m feeling well today (and the Saturday after FEC#1), I expect that Saturday, October 6th (the day after FEC #3), I’ll be in good shape to join everyone and walk the Race Course with Team Millenbah and HTC – Hitachi Consulting. Hooray!!!
Love to all, Lisa
-MESSAGES-
Hurrah So glad to hear you are feeling pretty good. Keep up the good work. Knew you could handle it. Take care. A. J.
Great news Hi Lisa! As usual, you sound upbeat and positive. I'm so glad to hear everything is going well. You deserve nothing but the best. We can't WAIT to see you in Houston! It has been way too long, my friend. Lots of love-C.
Race for the Cure Nat gave me a really successful way of signing up to support the race... If I forgot to send it to anyone who's having trouble, let me or Nat know and we'll help you out. We HAVE to beat Haliburton!!!!!!
Hurray for Lisa. If you can walk the course, certainly your father-in-law can!!!!!!!! and me too, of course. xxxplr
Yeah Lisa! Hi Lisa! I've been thinking about you off and on yesterday and today. It was good to hear your report. I had to laugh when I read that you are taking Darvon. I lived off of Darvon as a teen. It was the only thing that helped my cramps. It was good to me then, so hopefully it will be good to you with the Neulasta! I hope it's an uneventful evening for you!!! Much love to you and Nat! M.
Thinking about You We've been following along with your updates and thinking of you often through all your "ups and downs" sounds like your "ups" are starting to out number your "downs." Hang in there ! Love S. & T.
Dear Lisa, Our hopes and prayers are for your continuous recovery and strength when you need it the most. There is a HUGE cheering section going your way. Take care. D.