Tag Archives: Breast Cancer

48 Hours After Chemo

Tuesday morning I gathered my bag of boredom busters and snacks and headed to the clinic for my first treatment. I was nervous because there was so much unknown.

I was given a few medications to take prior to chemo. I was wrong in a previous post and stated it was anti-nausea medication. It is actually a steroid that I take the night before and the morning of my therapy.

When I arrived I got signed in. They had already done the pre-chemo bloodwork so my one and only stop was the treatment room. It was very nice. All the staff was friendly and knowledgeable.

The actual infusion happened in stages. First I had a bag of anti-nausea medicine and steroids that ran in over 30 minutes. Then there was another anti-nausea medication that ran in over 15 minutes. Both of those went well. I felt nothing. During that time I made myself comfortable and watched Netflix and did a lot of talking to people on my phone.

The nurse then came over to begin the actual chemotherapy. The first one was to be pushed in manually. She told me that I needed to chew on ice while she was injecting it to help prevent mouth sores. She slowly pushed the “red Devil” medicine in. I am not versed in the actual names of the chemo drugs yet, but I will get the names before the next treatment. For those who know about chemo drugs, I am recovering AC chemo right now. While that medicine was going in I again had no effects. No bad taste in my mouth or weird feelings at all.

The final step was the last chemo drug which would go on over 45 minutes. I had brought with me some snacks. A sweet and a salty. I wasn’t sure what I would want or how they would taste. If you know me, you know I started with the sweet. It was a Swiss cake roll and it tasted as good as always. Next up was some Chex Mix and a bottle of water. I continue watching Netflix and before I knew it I was all done.

Shortly after getting home I got a pretty nasty headache. The nurse had warned this could happen. It means we will need to slow down the flow of the second chemo drug and run it in over a longer period of time next time.

The rest of the day I slept off and on. I had little energy and the headache lingered. I was unsure what I could take for the pain so I didn’t take anything. Looking back, I should have called my doctor and asked, but I am hardheaded.

I was able to eat lunch and supper with no issues and was actually very hungry most of the day.

The night went well. I was still battling a headache and about 4 am gave up and took Tylenol. I had seen mixed reviews online of whether that was okay or not, but I couldn’t stand it any longer. I got a few more hours of sleep and woke up feeling pretty good.

I called my doctor when they opened and she confirmed it was okay to take Tylenol or ibuprofen for my headaches. The day went well. I was sent home the previous day with an auto-injector of the Neulasta medication. It was set to go off 27 hours after being put on.

At about 2 pm I heard a few beeps and the medication began going into me. This too would take about 45 minutes. While it was going in there was a click every second or so. As it go closer to done the clicks became farther apart. To let me know it was all done it beeped a few seconds and a green light came on. I was told I could then remove it and place in a baggie for them to dispose of. Since there is a needle involved I cannot just throw it away. Makes total sense. There was no pain associated with this. I felt absolutely nothing as the medicine was going in and it came off my arm with ease.

After that medication went in I felt pretty tired. Chris says it was just my normal nap time and he is probably right! I took a good nap and woke up feeling refreshed.

This morning is a bit of a different story. During the night I woke up with pain in my neck and throat. My glands seem swollen and I just feel yuck. I knew all of this was coming but it doesn’t make it easier. I feel hungry but don’t really want to use the energy to eat. It is very much “flu-like symptoms”.

I know that my body needs food and water so I am drinking protein shakes, water, and Gatorade until I feel up to eating something.

I am fully prepared for this to get worse before it gets better, but I find comfort in knowing this is temporary.

God>Cancer

Happy October

How is it possible that it is October already. This year is a blur, but specifically the last two months. Our journey with breast cancer began roughly two months ago when I had the first mammogram and sonogram. Chris and I were talking recently and both discussed how little we really remember about August and September. It was a whirlwind. I feel like we had enough appointments to take up a year in the last two months and we are really just getting started.

I have proof it was a blur. I was looking back through blog posts the other day and realized I had discussed surgery day in detail in two separate blog posts. I questioned why no one told me! Apparently, I wrote the post entitled “Surgery Day” in the middle of the night following my surgery. I have ZERO recollection of writing that post. The way Chris tells it, when he woke up about seven that morning I asked him to proof a blog post I had written overnight. He did, and I posted it. I must say, for someone who has no recollection of doing this, I am proud of my writing abilities while apparently highly medicated. Chris. And I got some good laughs when discussing this and my genuine shock of not remembering it. While this instance was because of medication,, the rest of the last two month feels much the same. This is one of the reasons I am blogging the experience,, so that we can look back later and remember..

Recovery from surgery has been interesting. I wouldn’t say it’s been horribly painful, but a better word would be uncomfortable. There is swelling, mostly under my arm. There is a tightness as I try to move and regain full range of motion, but I’m getting there. My drain and stitches were removed on Monday. I was nervous about pain associated with that process and there was none. The nurse had told me to just stop in and they would take care of it. I was in and out in ten minutes and got a surprise visit by Dr. B. I did not expect to get to see her, but she stopped in to make sure I was doing okay and removed my stitches. Once the drain came out I was told that I had no restrictions. I was allowed to do whatever I felt like doing. I still have been taking it easy, but did manage to make tacos for dinner the other night. I am trying to be as active as possible leading up to chemo beginning. But don’t worry, I. am not overdoing it!

My doctors all told me that exercise is important. The weather is providing a perfect environment to get out and walk around the neighborhood so that is what the boys and I did yesterday.. The pandemic has prevented us all from getting out and doing things, but we have no excuses now that summer is over for not getting outside for fresh air and sunshine!!

Finally, as most of you are probably aware, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. I hope to do some specific posts about awareness and prevention so stay tuned for those.

16 Inches

I am now 11 days post-op. For me, it has gone fast. Probably because I have done a lot of sleeping. For the rest of the people living with me it has probably been slow. Probably because while awake I complain? My main restriction is that I cannot lift more than five pounds. That is virtually everything! This is hard to do and annoying for everyone. Isaac and Chris has been awesome in helping out! Eli has done fairly well understanding I cannot lift him and we have figured out ways for him to climb on my lap and me to use my legs to give him a lift if needed.

Since before the cancer diagnosis I have wanted to get my hair done. I have made appointments and for one reason or another had to cancel. When I was diagnosed and found out I would be receiving chemo that would take my hair I thought, what is the point of spending all that time and money getting an awesome hairdo. I have gone back and forth with this over the last month and half.

As chemo draws closer, about a week and a half away, I decided that at the least I needed to cut my hair shorter to make the losing of it less of a mess. I was trying to remember the last time I got a haircut. I am not one to spend money on “girly” things so hair is often put on the back burner. As I thought back, I believe it was just prior to Eli being born. Roughly two years ago! There may have been a cut since, but I cannot remember it. Regardless, my hair was long. Nearly to my waistline!

A sweet friend had offered to cut my hair for me and has been my hair lady for a while now. We finally were able to get a time and date scheduled and she, being her awesome self, came to my home! I didn’t get a before picture and almost missed the cutting of the ponytail. She had just snipped the first snip and I said, wait! Chris take a picture!

The ponytail measured about 14 inches! She took off an additional couple of inches to make a final cut of about 16 inches. I have saved the ponytail so that I can donate it. I am still researching around for the best place and would love feedback if you have donated your hair in the past. All I know is that there are a lot of people out there who want/need wigs and prefer real hair over synthetic. The amount needed to donate varies by the organization, but I encourage all of you to donate. Hair does a lot for your self-esteem and overall attitude.

This is one of the hard parts of cancer. I know it is just hair. I know it will grow back, eventually, but knowing I will lose it all in a matter of weeks is difficult. Maybe even more difficult to me than losing a breast. I know that this too shall pass and that hopefully this time next year my hair will be back. But this has been hard! I’m actually excited to see if comes in curly or a completely different color! I have thought about getting a wig, but have decided to just do wraps and such. I can change them up and there are a ton of cute ones out there. I can show my personality through the headgear I sport.

Why did I decide against a wig? There is only two months where I will be getting chemo that kills my hair. Then the hair will begin growing back while finishing up the final chemo medication. I can’t justify the cost of a wig for such a short amount of time. There is no way to k ow how long it will take for my hair to return, but since it will be wintertime And would be wearing beanies and which anyway, I will take that route and use the money I would have spent on the wig to her an awesome hairdo once it all comes back in.

We were told that roughly two weeks after starting chemo (my start date is Oct. 6) I will lose all hair from head to toe. For some they eyebrows are spared (weird). How it falls out is different for everyone so we have to decide if we shave my head beforehand or let. Happen naturally. If you’ve gone through this I value your input!

I will leave you with the after picture of my cut. I love big earrings with short hair and I think I will enjoy big earrings with head wraps. So look out for some cute ones and share with me where to get them if you find some.