Saturday, June 1, 2013:
Well, the end of my chemo is within sight. June 19th will be my last treatment then I will move on to the recovery, surgery, physical therapy, radiation and more recovery phases of this process. I did not have a clue that having breast cancer could or would be such a long ordeal. May God bless anyone and everyone that has ever had to deal with cancer of any kind. I have a new and profound respect for cancer survivors and the struggles they have endured along the way. My hat is off to you all. I have always said that I would rather be ran over by a big truck than to get cancer of any kind. Well, I didn't get my wish. Having to watch loved ones fight to live and then lose the battle is and was a horrible thing and it is my own selfishness that I wanted a truck to run over me. I figured that would be the best thing to hope for because of the treatments and procedures one must endure once diagnosed with cancer. Well, since the truck didn't show up and I have had to do it the hard way, it doesn't seem nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Sure, it is no picnic but I am still here, my quality of life has not suffered and I am surrounded by my loving friends and family that are so good about calling me, sending me cards and doing little things for me that let me know how much they care. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
Today is the 3rd day after my treatment #5. I had a reaction to one of the meds they give me in the beginning of the chemo. It is in a little bag and it is clear liquid. It is for nausea and I get it every time I go. It is also one of the first meds they give me after they do all the flushing out of my tubes that are hooked up to my arm. Once they started the drip I began to have a little cough, cough, cough. Kind of like my throat was dry. I noticed that I was breathing pretty shallow. Not taking deep breaths. I decided to go to the bathroom and I have to unplug the little stand my drips are hanging from and take it with me. The trip to the bathroom is when I became aware that if I tried to take a deep breath that I couldn't. It just caused me to cough more and harder. When I got back to my chair (it only took a few minutes) I told the nurse something strange was going on. By then my medicine was used up. She then reported it to the Dr. and she told her to have some Benadryl ready in case it happened again while having the rest of my meds given to me. Fortunately that was the only issue and I happily slept through most of my chemo. I was really sleepy later that afternoon after getting home so I went to be early and then again yesterday I went to bed around 5:30 pm because I was sooooo sleepy. My last treatment I had to deal with a backache and headache and the mouth sores through the 3 weeks between treatments. About 5 days before #5 my mouth sores all but went away and food was tasting pretty good. Not great, just good. I was really wanting something to eat that had 'taste'....real 'taste' so I got out some frozen hot wings. I microwaved 2 of them and sat down for what I thought would be a wonderful taste sensation. Well, if you know of or have ever tried a Habanero Pepper then you can appreciate the FIRE that consumed my entire mouth!!!!! My eyes were watering, my nose was running, I could not get enough ice in my mouth to douse the flames!!!! My mouth blisters did not appreciate the hot sauce one bit and.....to top it off, I ate another one!! What was I thinking???? I managed to survive with no long lasting effects and will stay clear of the hot wings until I can be sure it won't be that bad ever again. Up to this point, today, the effect I call 'chemo head' has not reared it's ugly head and maybe it won't. That is the most I can hope for. No mouth sores, yet. A little vertigo happens every now and then. Food it beginning to taste strange. I had some blueberry yogurt and all it tasted like was 'blue'. No berry taste just the color blue. Colors look strange to me from time to time. What a strange phenomenon that is. It is like trying on different colors of glasses. Some with yellow lenses, blue lenses, dark green lenses. Odd to say the least. Well, to all my friends at work I want to give a big hug and hello and thanks for your thoughts and prayers. And all of you that have me on your prayer list, please add my sister in law Barbara Fincannon. She has bee going through this same battle as I and even longer than I have and could really use the power of prayer.
Hugs to you all and I will update if my status changes.
Glenda
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