Friday I went in for my labs and an echocardiogram to make sure the herceptin isn't damaging my heart.
The echo was fast. While in the waiting room, I was talking to a woman there that finished chemo in April. She was still wearing a scarf over her head(!!!!!!!) I asked her about it, because I was kind of freaking out a little when she told me how long it had been since she finished. Apparently when her hair grew back in, it grew in 'bad' so she shaved it off and started all over again! Crazy!
I then had to go back up to the chemo room to talk to the nurse about my labs. My white blood cells were very high! great! I figured as much because I feel really good! But she told me that my hemoglobin is super low- which is indicative of my iron levels. She said if they get any lower than they are now, I will have to get a transfusion or infusion- not sure which she said. Bah! She gave me a list of iron rich foods to eat, but she also told me that even if I eat a lot of them, my numbers will only go up a tiny amount probably. So, hopefully they get better by next week! I am kind of surprised because of how good I am feeling- relatively energetic! However, my legs have been very weak the past few days, and increasingly so every day. They aren't achey in the knees like they get right after chemo- more like my whole legs are just weak, the way they get after about 30 minutes on a treadmill. I can walk across the room, and be nearly exhausted! So I am thinking it is probably related to the low iron. After doing some research- I found that it could also cause excessive sweating and a feeling of heartburn. Hmmmm. It would be pretty sweet if I could fix the iron issue and make the heartburn and sweating go away, or at least get better. The heartburn isn't terrible right now, but the sweating- oh the sweating! If that doesn't get better soon, the rest of the people living in this house are going to be very cold this winter while I have the heat turned off to reduce sweating! haha!
The other new weird side effect I am having is muscle twitching. Sometimes it is in my arm, other times in my leg. Usually it is in my face though. It is VERY annoying!
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