Day Two of New Chemo Cycle

I'm doing much better so far with this chemo cycle, and felt much better yesterday following the oxaliplatin infusion yesterday, and beginning the two weeks of Xeloda tablets.

The chemo nurse, Linda, sensed my anxiety when I arrived, and we talked about what happened last time, my worries that I would leave again feeling so awful I could barely walk, and my concerns about the lingering side effects. Dr. J, the oncologist, called from Wyoming, where he was lecturing to medical students, and updated me on the details of the changes in my chemo regimen. He ordered a calcium/magnesium infusion before and after the oxaliplatin, because it seems to offset the impact of the drug on nerves (neuropathy), and that did seem to make a big difference yesterday. He also reduced the oxaliplatin dose by 20%, and the Xeloda dose by 33%, so I'll be having a bit less of both chemos through this cycle.

When I left, my legs weren't hurting, as they were last time, and I didn't have numbness in the back of my throat. And today I don't have as strong a sense of my body just being completely out of whack as I did. I did still have trouble with pain in my arm when the infusion was about 3/4 complete, so I asked Linda to stop it. So, we stopped using the one arm and went to the other, and went to a larger vein in my arm, near my elbow for the end of the infusion. Linda was upset because she thinks that the oxaliplatin is just too tough for arm veins to tolerate, and that they should establish a policy that everyone receiving the drug has a port.

Anyway, after going to a second vein yesterday and having everything slowed down as a result, I'm ready for a port. Linda must have ordered it right away, because I got a phone call from the "line coordinator" soon after I got home, and I have an appointment to have it inserted on Monday, April 2, with my appointment beginning at 6:00 in the morning (Yeow!). Since I don't want to do another infusion without a port, I'm glad we have a plan. The port is inserted surgically in the chest below the collarbone, and provides easy access for the chemo infusion. And because this is a larger vein, the soreness with arm infusions just isn't an issue.

I also had a good conversation with Linda about my problems eating and my lack of appetite. After talking with her, I feel as if my problems have been normalized. Lots of people with various forms of chemo have lack of appetite, food tasting funny, decreasing appetite as the day progresses, and other odd things about eating, it seems. We talked about drinking as much as I can so as not to get dehydrated, about eating frequently, expecting to be able to eat less at a time than I used to, and just dealing with what is but eating as much as I can. I've lost 15 pounds or so in the last two months (some of it due to the stomach virus), and Linda said I need to stop losing weight and regain at least some of it. So, I feel normalized in my experience and challenged to keep getting more nutrition into me. She also gave me a book with recipes especially attractive to and useful for patients on chemo. It has lots of soup recipes, which I'll have to try when I have energy. I've been realizing that liquid food like soup tastes especially good to me.

On the subject of losing weight, I had something very funny happen to me while teaching on Thursday. I was wearing a pair of my favorite stretch corduroy pants, which are very comfortable, and I'd walked from the train station to my office without incident. However, when I was teaching, talking, and raising my arms to write a lot on the board, I began to realize that my pants were beginning to fall down. I slipped behind the big media center and hiked them up, and then found I had to do that repeatedly. Fortunately, they didn't end up around my ankles, which would have been beyond embarrassing, but it was a struggle to focus on my lecture, answer student questions, and keep up my too-loose pants!

So, that's my medical update and my medical state for today. It's a relief to feel more normal than I did last time.

This week was hard, with a need to focus intensely on work before I felt rested from traveling, and with my anticipatory anxiety about yesterday's chemo. So, I'm glad to be on the other side of all of that, able to nap today and tomorrow, and ready to get back into the rhythm of our daily routines. My continuing thanks to all of you who read this and follow my journey, and who post your words of love, support, and humor!