Saturday, April 15, 2023

3rd AC chemo

chemo

This chemo was hard. I was sick the night before so could barely muster the strength to get to the hospital. And, of course, this was the day when everything had to go wrong...

First, we ended up waiting extra time to every appointment: labs, doctor, infusion and time was as slow as molasses.

Second, there is a very distracted, overwhelmed nurse. We had got her during my very first infusion when told us she didn't know what to do, and even this time she was as disorganized as ever and everything took too long. But the icing on the cake was when we finally left the hospital and she called back in half an hour to let us know that she forgot to attach the Neulasta patch and we have to go back.

Thirdly, when we finally got back to the hospital, she hurriedly attached the shot capsule in a small hidden room to the side of my arm in a way that for the next day I couldn't use the arm much as the capsule stuck out at odd angle.

After living through, now, 15 chemo sessions I can say --- I hate chemo with a vengeance. And I have been dealt the "easy hand" --- I managed to avoid a lot of side effects that others  suffer though.... and it is still really tough. The cumulative effect just slowly swallows you whole like a whale. The overwhelming fatigue, that no sleep can cure, the coughing, sensitivity to smells, lack of sleep, getting tired of walking for more than 20 minutes....

I have one more chemo left, the last one and it is like the tantalizing new horizon of my normal, regular life back, just dangling there almost at a hand reach. 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Labels

chemotherapy (29) chemo side effects (24) friends (12) radiation (12) cancer (10) fun (10) keytruda (9) food (7) biopsy (6) fatigue (6) insurance (6) port (6) testing (6) hell (5) iv (5) recharge (5) scan (5) test results (5) MRI (4) celebration (4) chemo (4) doctor (4) hair loss (4) hospital (4) mammogram (4) side effects (4) support (4) surgery (4) taxol (4) acupuncture (3) benadryl (3) carboplatin (3) diagnosis (3) operation (3) protocol (3) radiology (3) wig (3) Clark Museum (2) Dana Farber (2) allergic reaction (2) arthritis (2) ct scan (2) cytoxan (2) emotianl state (2) emotional state (2) everyday life (2) family (2) funny (2) genetic testing (2) hair (2) nurse (2) preparation for chemotherapy (2) second opinion (2) treatment (2) trip (2) triple negative (2) tumor (2) turban (2) zofran (2) 1st chemo (1) Faulkner hospital (1) HER2 (1) Lahey (1) MassMoca (1) RSL (1) accupuncture (1) adriamycin (1) adriamycinche (1) birthday (1) blood work (1) blue cross blue shield (1) bone scan (1) brain fog (1) cravings (1) daughter (1) depression (1) diarrhea (1) discovery (1) dressing (1) drugs (1) estrogen receptor (1) halfway (1) hospitals (1) how to tell you have cancer (1) hugs (1) infusion room (1) invasive carcinoma (1) lessons learned (1) low white cells (1) music (1) mutations (1) nausea (1) new year (1) pathology (1) pepcid (1) pink (1) plans (1) pneumonitis (1) progesterone receptor (1) reduction (1) referral (1) respite (1) response (1) results (1) rides (1) samples (1) scheduling (1) self-diagnostic (1) seroma (1) soups (1) statistics (1) suppliments (1) survival (1) tissues (1) tokens (1) travel (1) treatment regiment (1) ultrasound (1)