11th chemo

11th chemo ✅ 

Well, there's good news and bad news. 

The good news is that I survived my 11th chemo session quite easily. I mean, I'm practically back to my normal "chemo days"!  

The bad news is that my pre-chemo test results came back with a very low white cell count, which meant we had to negotiate whether or not to do chemotherapy today at all.

Honestly, I had no idea about the tests and was feeling absolutely fine, but the doctor and I had to make a tough decision. In the end, we decided to go for half chemo - only Taxol, without the Carboplatin. Apparently, the Carboplatin kills white cells, which is why my count was so low.

By skipping it today, hopefully, I would also skip the aftereffects as well. I admit, I was terrified of having a repeat of last week's high fever and emergency room visit hanging over me.

And so far, I am back to my regular "after chemo days" as well -- I was starving, and as I need the high protein diet it seems, George and I went to Flaming Grill afterwards!  Having an appetite tends to indicate that everything is even better than it seems. 

I started to crash in a few hours after we got home, but fatigue is now a familiar friend.

Hell broke loose

Well, when I thought 10th chemo was hard, I didn't know what that really meant. 

I got home on Thursday and even managed to cook something for Max, before feeling fatigued and crawling into bed. And in a few hours all hell broke loose -- first I got chills, then high fever (103 F / 39.5 C), delusions... George started calling my oncologist around 10 pm, when it became apparent that it was not going to go away on its own.

She said there were two possibilities: 

1. I started to get an allergic reaction to Carboplatin. Yes, I know it has been already 9 chemotherapy sessions, but it turns out it is pretty common to get it later in the treatments cycle due to overall accumulation.

2. I have some sort of serious infection, and God forbid, we don't want any organ failures and I should go to the nearest ER.

Just imagining a 30 minute drive, then a long wait at the ER full of sneezing and coughing people, which doubtfully could do much regarding any organ failure -- we decided on easier remedies of lukewarm showers and Ibuprofen. Several hours later, my temperature dropped to 37 C and the crisis was averted.

Friday, in the early hours of the morning, my oncologist called to check-up on me, and explained that this was most likely an allergic reaction and that next Thursday she will be adding back the steroids as premeds to try to deal with this.

It took almost till Sunday for me and here I am, still standing, well, sitting actually, but back to normal now.

It's scary to think that something like this could happen even after the 9th chemotherapy sessions, as I thought that by now I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. But I guess cancer treatment likes to keep us on our toes.