My chemo infusion went great and ended in almost record time! In addition to that awesomeness, the tv was NOT set to watch Bonanza! haha! I sat with a bunch of really talkative women and actually had a pretty good and entertaining time. The first woman I talked to had lung cancer- she just finished radiation, and her lungs and throad got all torn up from it- she was in pretty rough shape. I ate a breakfast sandwich and she almost cried because she wanted real food so bad. She only stayed for about 2 hours- then my usual group came in- turns out that 2 of the women in my pod lived in Joshua- we probably all live about 5 minutes from each other! Pretty weird! After chemo I was feeling a little queasy- but not terrible.
Thursday, Cameron went to school, and the nurse called shortly thereafter because he was throwing up :( I went and picked him up and sent him upstairs to watch tv- I told him I couldn't clean up his mess so he had better puke in the toilet! haha! Luckily he did! Then Thursday night, Ethan started with the puking. Jim was also not feeling well. I missed the bug when Sloane had it- now it was going through the rest of the family.
All day friday I felt pretty bad. I actually don't think I caught the bug- I never got a fever, but I think each chemo is getting worse and worse. All I can say is that friday and saturday were terrible! And since Jim wasn't feeling well- that meant I got to take care of the family. I got to make dinner for everyone, and do everything else. Ugh! MAYBE next cycle someone will take care of ME, and cook for ME. That would be nice!
Sunday night I woke up a few times in my sleep because I was having some weird arm pain in my left arm. I was also really nauseous, and noticed a weird aching pain in the area of my heart. I kept going back to sleep, but by morning I had gotten kind of concerned. One of the chemo meds I am taking has a history of causing heart problems and heart attacks. I decided I would go in to the dr if it was still going on once Sloane went to school. And of course- it was! Jim drove her to school, then came and picked me up- luckily we have a little ER about 2 blocks from our house. I found out that if you want people to spring to action- you tell them you are having chest pain. Haha! Seriously- I didn't have to sign any paperwork, give them my name, nothing- they took me straight back to a room and put me in a bed, brought in an EKG machine and got that all started. Then they took my name and personal information. Impressive! Sadly, after that it went very slowly. They needed bloodwork and they were out of the needles they use to access my port. That meant they needed to stick my arm- My right arm is out of commission forever more so they get my left. The woman does a terrible job in my arm, then sticks it in my hand- usually it isn't terribly painful but this woman was not skilled at needle sticks! She ended up having to go get someone else to do it because although she got a vein in my hand, she couldn't pull any blood from it. The other woman did a fabulous job, thank goodness. They then decided that I needed a CT scan/echo something or other. They had to inject me with iodine at a really fast pace and take a CT picture of my heart at this exact moment. Sounds easy.... The woman has to test my iv to make sure it can handle the fluid coming in at a fast pace, so she tests it with saline. They left my hand iv accessed (even though it wasn't suitable enough to draw blood from) so that is the one she used. When she pushed it into my vein, I SCREAMED!!!! I do not mean a little- ouch, that doesn't feel good yelp- I mean screamed! It was so incredibly painful. She thought she had blown a vein but she didn't. Who knows what was wrong. She decided there was no way we were going to use my hand. She called in someone else to stick me AGAIN. They actually had to use an ultrasound to find a vein to stick! OMG- I am seriously considering getting a needle that can access my port, and keep it in my purse at all times just in case of emergency because this was such a terrible experience!
Finally they got the needle in, and gave me the injection- it all went fine! I ended up being there for 4 hours which totally sucked! During all of this, I was still experiencing the chest pain, but all the tests came back fine. Even once I got home in the evening I was still having that pain- so although it totally ruined my whole morning, I still would have gone to get it checked out if I had to do it over again- it really was a bad/odd feeling when it would happen. The doctor even said that it really sounded like heart pain that I was describing. Often people have pain that they think is a heart attack and it is really heartburn, but that is definately not what I felt. I guess it was just a weird fluke! Thank goodness for that!
Today, I feel like I am almost normal. It's about time! The only side effect I am still having that is really bothering me is twitching. All of my muscles twitch so much I feel like I am vibrating! Sometimes, it is my arms, sometimes it is my face, and even my stomach- so weird! The nurse last week told me to drink tonic water, because the quinine in it will stop the twitching. I bought some and tasted it. It was so completely horrible that I won't be having any more- I will just sit and twitch, thank you!
Here is a picture of the butchery done on my poor arm!
Thursday, Cameron went to school, and the nurse called shortly thereafter because he was throwing up :( I went and picked him up and sent him upstairs to watch tv- I told him I couldn't clean up his mess so he had better puke in the toilet! haha! Luckily he did! Then Thursday night, Ethan started with the puking. Jim was also not feeling well. I missed the bug when Sloane had it- now it was going through the rest of the family.
All day friday I felt pretty bad. I actually don't think I caught the bug- I never got a fever, but I think each chemo is getting worse and worse. All I can say is that friday and saturday were terrible! And since Jim wasn't feeling well- that meant I got to take care of the family. I got to make dinner for everyone, and do everything else. Ugh! MAYBE next cycle someone will take care of ME, and cook for ME. That would be nice!
Sunday night I woke up a few times in my sleep because I was having some weird arm pain in my left arm. I was also really nauseous, and noticed a weird aching pain in the area of my heart. I kept going back to sleep, but by morning I had gotten kind of concerned. One of the chemo meds I am taking has a history of causing heart problems and heart attacks. I decided I would go in to the dr if it was still going on once Sloane went to school. And of course- it was! Jim drove her to school, then came and picked me up- luckily we have a little ER about 2 blocks from our house. I found out that if you want people to spring to action- you tell them you are having chest pain. Haha! Seriously- I didn't have to sign any paperwork, give them my name, nothing- they took me straight back to a room and put me in a bed, brought in an EKG machine and got that all started. Then they took my name and personal information. Impressive! Sadly, after that it went very slowly. They needed bloodwork and they were out of the needles they use to access my port. That meant they needed to stick my arm- My right arm is out of commission forever more so they get my left. The woman does a terrible job in my arm, then sticks it in my hand- usually it isn't terribly painful but this woman was not skilled at needle sticks! She ended up having to go get someone else to do it because although she got a vein in my hand, she couldn't pull any blood from it. The other woman did a fabulous job, thank goodness. They then decided that I needed a CT scan/echo something or other. They had to inject me with iodine at a really fast pace and take a CT picture of my heart at this exact moment. Sounds easy.... The woman has to test my iv to make sure it can handle the fluid coming in at a fast pace, so she tests it with saline. They left my hand iv accessed (even though it wasn't suitable enough to draw blood from) so that is the one she used. When she pushed it into my vein, I SCREAMED!!!! I do not mean a little- ouch, that doesn't feel good yelp- I mean screamed! It was so incredibly painful. She thought she had blown a vein but she didn't. Who knows what was wrong. She decided there was no way we were going to use my hand. She called in someone else to stick me AGAIN. They actually had to use an ultrasound to find a vein to stick! OMG- I am seriously considering getting a needle that can access my port, and keep it in my purse at all times just in case of emergency because this was such a terrible experience!
Finally they got the needle in, and gave me the injection- it all went fine! I ended up being there for 4 hours which totally sucked! During all of this, I was still experiencing the chest pain, but all the tests came back fine. Even once I got home in the evening I was still having that pain- so although it totally ruined my whole morning, I still would have gone to get it checked out if I had to do it over again- it really was a bad/odd feeling when it would happen. The doctor even said that it really sounded like heart pain that I was describing. Often people have pain that they think is a heart attack and it is really heartburn, but that is definately not what I felt. I guess it was just a weird fluke! Thank goodness for that!
Today, I feel like I am almost normal. It's about time! The only side effect I am still having that is really bothering me is twitching. All of my muscles twitch so much I feel like I am vibrating! Sometimes, it is my arms, sometimes it is my face, and even my stomach- so weird! The nurse last week told me to drink tonic water, because the quinine in it will stop the twitching. I bought some and tasted it. It was so completely horrible that I won't be having any more- I will just sit and twitch, thank you!
Here is a picture of the butchery done on my poor arm!
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