6th day, 3rd chemo

Instead of my regular 4 day recovery, I have spent 6 days pretty much in bed, eating only cucumbers and melons.  At some point I couldn't even talk on the phone with my parents, who called to check in.

By Wednesday I crawled out of bed to go to my acupuncture appointment, and as soon as she saw me, she said that the whites of my eyes were the wrong tint and I should be barely functioning. She said I have to eat proteins, meat or beans, otherwise I will not survive.

After my now regular three and a half hour session, I got home smelling of tiger balm and forced myself to eat eggs and a can of beans....

Not sure if it was just getting out of bed, or the long acupuncture session, or the fateful can of beans that evening, but I had, for the first time during this AC chemo, an almost regular night and woke up functioning normally the next day, Again, the first in this cycle.

So, not sure what did the trick, but I'll take it.

5th chemo

5th chemotherapy done ✅

This time, no steroid drugs or allergy meds needed (Benadryl), just a little Zofran and Pepcid to get the job done. 

This is how we roll now and going forward! Now my premeds will not change.

Oh, and I managed to convince the acupuncturist that I will not digest the "ear seeds" she sticks on as treatment, unlike, I guess the majority of cancer paitients,...so she agreed to let me keep them on for the prescribed 5 days vs 1 hour. Will see if that makes any difference.

Chemo went off without a hitch --- just stung a bit, a fun flick, and some H2O... and was home in 5 hours. 

Any movie recommendations? I am running out of things to watch :)

4th chemo

4th chemotherapy done ✅

Today I finished half of the first chemotherapy (8 cycles), only 4 more to go with this one.

There are several firsts today:

1. First time I am using my newly inserted port, from last Thursday. As per instructions, slathered the incision with Lidocaine cream an hour and half before, so was almost painless! 

2. Wore a zipped up hoody, borrowed from Gwen at the last minute, in order to comfortably use the port vs my favorite cotton easy pull-on tops. Was a good decision, otherwise I would have had to walk around half naked once they draw blood for tests and attaché the needle to the port.

3. No steroids this time at all (!),  only 1/4 of Benadryl, because they didn't want to stop two medications at the same time, and 1/2 of Zofran. we are getting there -- to remove any additional poison that is not absolutely necessary from my chemotherapy cocktail.

4. Had an acupuncture treatment (ear seeds) while doing the chemo infusion.