infusion, on tuesday 12 february, lasted less than 4 hours, an improvement over the 6 hours i spent in the chair for taxol/carbo. they asked me to come an hour before appointment to have blood drawn, so i dumped my stuff in the room (with a window!) & went for a walk. that was a good idea, hoping for nice weather on treatment days so i can always go for a walk before getting in the chair. they say a walk is the best thing you can do to boost your immunity!
my nurse ivy had some creepy information about doxil to pass on. apparently it tends to leak out of capillaries in hands & feet, causing “palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia”, meaning palms & soles can get red, dry & peel, numb or tingling, & “interfere with your ability to carry out normal activities”. o yay. so the instructions for preventing or reducing PPE say avoid heat, friction, & pressure on hands & feet for at least a week after infusion. no using garden tools, washing dishes, tub baths; “short showers in tepid water” recommended for bathing, doesn’t that sound appealing. ivy also said patients getting doxil usually have a port placed in a blood vessel, so an IV doesn’t have to be started every time, since accidental leakage at the infusion site can cause damage to surrounding tissue. eek. dr.wali had not mentioned this to me, i’ll talk to the ladies in support group about this, i know some of them have had ports.
so, day 2 was as expected, i was feeling pretty good, went to town to groceryshop, was taking the drugs they recommended to minimize the nausea, thinking maybe the crash wouldn’t be so bad. ha.
thursday, day 3, i threw up my morning smoothie, couldn’t keep anything down, was in a pitiful state later in the day when tracy called to check on me. so she came & picked me up, i spent the next 4 nites in her lovely new guest room, being very well taken care of. thankgoodness, since i was not capable of taking care of myself.
view from bed in tracy & richard’s guestroom
for 3 days, no food stayed down, & almost no water. retching & gagging over the toilet all day long, was starting to worry about dehydration. and this was WITH the drugs? could it have been worse without them? what really worked short-time to quell the waves of nausea, as usual, was a hit of marijuana. when i wasn’t hanging out at the toilet, i was sleeping, but every awakening was accompanied by remnants of very disturbing dreams.
saturday afternoon michaelW came by for a visit, i was able to stay uprite for a few minutes, but i can’t imagine i was good company. still, a welcome change from suffering alone at home! i think it was on saturday i finally had a poop, after drinking smooth move tea & pacing a lot. getting things moving again is always a challenge after treatment!
on sunday i was able to start keeping food down, in small amounts, & get up out of bed for short periods. richard guessed some cream of rice would be a good idea for breakfast & he was so correct. for lunch, i asked for 1/2 of a peanut butter & banana sandwich, that had been on my mind, richard said yes, they had those things, & came back with the cutest little pb&b sandwiches & also a sample of pb&b with nutella. yum! i think all future pb&b sandwiches will have to be pb&N&b! jerry came by for a visit, & later jan came by, we sat on the porch in the sun, so sweet.
huge thanks & many blessings on tracy & richard for offering their guest room for a sick room!
came home monday. boomer was SO glad to see me! and i was so glad to see him too, tho my greeting dance was not quite so energetic as his. no one will bring me breakfast on a tray here, but i won’t be sleeping alone any more.
that was the first week. another week has gone by & recovery has been slow. noticeably slower than with taxol/carbo, which i assumed would be the case when dr.chan told me these would be at 4 week intervals instead of 3. saturday, day 12, was the first day that didn’t begin with retching & gagging, what a relief! also a relief to be waking up undisturbed by dreams. i’ve been eating a lot, getting out in the garden for an hour or so a day (weather has been mostly beautiful sunny days, what happened to all the rain?), have taken a couple short walks, went into trinidad on sunday afternoon for a piano concert benefit for the library building fund. that was a treat, lovely music, & saw lots of folks.
yesterday i went into town for support group & choir practice, & i’m considering going back to work this afternoon. we’ll see. it’s senior discount day at wildberries market, & have a chamber readers board meeting at 6:30, so have to get dressed & leave home anyway.
i’m still skin & bones, it’s a bit scary. on shopping list are ingredients for a smoothie recipe dr.abrams gave me, for putting on weight. full fat coconut milk, & coconut oil.
sad news at home:
dearly loved peeler died after many decades of faithful service. no other peeler i’ve ever used could match it for ease, comfort, efficiency, & its stunning simple design…
pjlyall 