Getting ready for Inpatient chemo, again!

EVERYONE CALM DOWN! We are ok! Sorry I didn't post this on Monday. We were running errands and still recovering from the holidays.

Last week, on Tuesday, I got the Neulasta shot. The injection is placed the back of my arm and it stimulates my bone marrow. My counts start coming up within a day but will help longer as well. I was achy in my knees, hips, and back for about 6 days. Nothing really helps with it when the pain sets in. For some reason, taking Claritin/Zyrtec before and after the injection is suppose to help. I did this but still wasn't feeling amazing. On top of all of that, I caught a cold (viral only since I didn't have a fever). I am starting to get over it now, but have passed it onto Wil.

We were able to spend time with both sides of our family, minimally though since I spent most of my time in bed. Needless to say, we look forward to Christmas next year without chemo or shots or colds! Wil is an amazing caretaker, making sure that I was going to bed when I needed to rest and getting me whatever I needed.

We saw Alison (GYN Physician Assistant) and Dr. Skinner this Monday after getting my labs drawn. No chemo this week as it is our off week, just preparing for inpatient chemo on January 5th. My exam went well according to Alison. Labs were good, potassium was low again. 3.4 (normal is 3.5-4.5) and I'm taking 20 mEq once daily. So I just have to increase it back to twice daily. These are some horse pills though!

The plan for Monday is similar to the previous weeks. I will still be taking the pre-medications all weekend at all hours of the day and night. I will still get my regular IV pre-medications when I get admitted but they will re-dose me with them right before they start my Carbo. This way, they are hoping for the steroids/Benadryl/Pepcid to not wear off when the Carbo is infusing. Asking for prayers on Monday that the infusion goes well with no reaction!

It is weird to think that this time, 2 years ago, Wil and I were celebrating New Year's Eve in the chemo room. It was my very last chemo, or so we thought. God had different plans for us. We know that it will all work for our good, and we have already seen some good come out of all of this. This reminds me of my favorite verse:

Chemo Round 4C: White blood cells not cooperating

I had my labs drawn today and we are not very excited about them  :(  My ANC (absolute neutrophil count) is the mature white blood cells that help your body fight off infection. My providers like this value to be over 1500 for treatment but the last couple of weeks mine has been 1000 (when steroids aren't affecting the values). I have been cleared to get treatment even though they were slightly lower than they wanted. Anything under 1000, I am considered to be neutropenic. This just means that I am more prone to getting sick or an infection. A common cold can send us to the hospital. To combat this, I will be getting a shot 24 hours after my chemo ended. It is called Neulasta which is a long acting shot that puts my bone marrow (where white blood cells are produced) into overdrive. I only had to have this shot once last time and was NOT a fan of the side effects. It helped my counts tremendously but 24 hours after getting the shot, it felt like I had been beaten with a baseball bat all over my body. I will get the shot at the cancer center tomorrow at 2 pm. This means that I won't be feeling great for Christmas Eve and for Christmas. I am taking some anti-inflammatory medications, Claritin, and Zyrtec to help combat the side effects. Wil and I will be traveling to Cary to see the Riegel side of the family for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. We changed our travel date to Tuesday, before the side effects set in.

The best part about chemo and was brightened this whole day was being able to get treatment with our buddies, the Riazzis! Mike even made sure that we were able to have seats next to each other. He had to pull some strings and our wonderful nurse, Allison, agreed to take both of us at the same time! She is such a sweetheart!

You may be wondering why I am posting this so late at night. I am absolutely exhausted right after I get my chemo, mainly from the IV Benadryl. I came home and took a power nap before going over to my in-laws for dinner and presents. I was still really tired at their house but once I get in bed, the steroids kicked in and I'm wide awake. I tried taking Benadryl pills to put me to sleep, didn't work. I then took an Ativan that my PA prescribed for when the roids keep me awake. Let's hope it helps soon!


We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. We have so much to be thankful for, especially this time of the year when we focus on our Savior's birth. God sent his own Son, separated from Him and knowing the gruesome death Jesus would face at the end of His earthly life. This was all out of love for us so we could spend eternity with Him in heaven.

Chemo 4B: H.O.P.E. and recovering from Carbo

This last week was a tough week for fatigue and nausea for me. I "worked" Wednesday through Friday. I ended up leaving a few hours early Wednesday and Thursday I went home for a 4.5 hour nap. There is nothing that can battle fatigue other than rest and Wil is really good about helping me during that. Nausea is helped by some pills that also make me tired. It is a vicious cycle sometimes. I turned the corner on Friday, and after taking it easy on Saturday, felt almost back to my new normal.

One of my favorite cups

My counts today all looked good, but steroids (since I got pre-meds all weekend and double dose IV) can falsely elevate these. Treatment went normally today followed by a LOVELY nap in my own bed. Wil and I forgot to take a picture in the treatment room, so this one was taken on the way home. We were busy trying to see our buddies, the Riazzis. They FINALLY switched to Mondays to hang out with us for their last 3 treatments. She is in the home stretch and we are so very excited for them!








Yesterday, with some of our small group from church, volunteered at
H.O.P.E. It stands for Help Our People Eat and is a wonderful organization. They take bagged lunches to low income neighborhoods with little or no access to healthy meals. Anyone 0-18 gets a healthy bagged lunch and a carton of milk and any adult can get a bag of produce. Tim drove the truck and we went to 4 different neighborhoods to hand out these meals. There was also a van that went to 3 locations. They ended up with extra meals this week and these were donated to the women's shelter. Wil and I were amazed with their use of resources, donations, and efficiency of the whole operation. Here is their link if you are looking for somewhere to donate or volunteer. We highly recommend it and we can't wait to go back and help!  http://www.hopews.org/our-mission

Tim driving the big truck

Wil, Kyler, and Brady riding in the back of the truck
around one of the neighborhoods

A-Dre asked Wil if he had any more Santa hats. Wil gave him his
NCSU hat and found out that is where A-Dre wants to go when
he grows up! He even did the wolfpack sign to Wil!

The boys getting the truck unloaded at one of the sites

Our whole small group!

Wil and I with the boys. They did such an amazing job
and were so excited to hand out meals to all the kids!

Round 4A: One day inpatient chemo turns to an overnight visit

Round two of inpatient chemo didn't go exactly as we were expecting. The plan was to be able to go home once the infusion was completed and sleep in our own bed, all because the first desensitization went so well. We had our same chemo nurse as we did the first time, Tonya, who is simply amazing! She always is so sweet and has all of her ducks in a row. She makes sure pharmacy is on top of things so she has all of my medications lined up and ready to go.


So here is the line up of medications. I had medications I had to take all weekend to prep my body to avoid an allergic reaction. We get directly admitted to a room on the oncology floor, also known as the penthouse since it is on the 9th floor. After getting my port-a-cath accessed, my premeds get hung and infuse. These are more IV Benadryl, steroids, Pepcid, and a long-acting anti-nausea medication. Once these are done, my Taxol (chemo that I don't have an issue with) gets infused over one hour. THEN starts the Carbo in 12 separate bags with an increasing doses with each bag.

 Ted and Connie were kind enough to bring us lunch and dinner. My hospital dinner was good, so I got to enjoy a peppermint chocolate chip milkshake! Yum!

 

 

 Tonya, my nurse, worked past her shift to hang my last bag before she left. Meredith was taking over as my next nurse. She saw me start to have a hot flash, I kicked my covers off. After the last chemo bag was hung, I got up to go to the bathroom. This is always a difficult task since I'm hooked up via my port, EKG leads, blood pressure cuff, and oxygen monitoring. When I looked in the mirror, I saw that my ears were bright red. Kind of hard to tell in the picture, but the flushing went down my arms and to my chest. I started having itching on my chest and back. Meredith immediately put my chemo on hold and called the PA, Liz.

Meredith on the phone with Liz, who talked with Dr. Wallace since Dr. Skinner (our oncologist) was on vacation. Everyone on my medical team decided that my premeds just wore off by the last bag of Carbo. I got all of the premeds once again. So that is DOUBLE the steroids! The Carbo ended up being on hold for 2 1/2 hours and once the premeds were done infusing, the Carbo was restarted at half of the rate as before. At least this was a mild reaction, no change in my heart rhythm or rate, and no breathing issues.





My good friend from my GYN cancer group, Kim, came by to visit after all of the commotion wore off! She brought me a really cute Santa bag that I can't wait to use! I just love this picture of us  :) 
Kim always can put a smile on my face!

 

 

 



Change of shift again! Meredith passed the torch to Kristin, who I had general nursing orientation with when we started as new grads at Forsyth! Kristin is the night time leader for the unit. I got the big wig for a bit before she needed to go home and get some sleep for an early morning!

My ICU buddy, Jennifer McBride, came by to visit us too! Not only that, she brought us dinner tonight. Not just one homemade pizza, but two! So I have stuff for lunch tomorrow. Thanks Jennifer, it was delicious!!!

Wil brought in some Christmas spirit! We were getting ready to finish the infusion there!

FINIALLY! All done at 11 pm at night! One smile then time to get some sleep! Since I got double the dose of steroids, the PA ordered me some IV Ativan to help me get some sleep. I slept from about 11:45 pm until 4:30 am. Doesn't seem like a lot, but it was an improvement from the first inpatient stay.

 

 

 

Poor Wil's sleeping arrangements. I love him so very much and am so glad that I had him by my side the whole time.

 

The next morning, our PA saw us and cleared us to go home. I got a prescription for Ativan since I will have a tough time sleeping from all of the steroids. We were home around 10:30 this morning and were able to take a nap in our own bed. I called my boss, Susan, to tell her that I ended up having to spend the night. And what do you know, she was amazing again! I'm still planning on working this week but it is nice to know that my boss is on my side if I'm not feeling good!

 

Wil and I feel so truly blessed to be surrounded by family, friends, church, and amazing medical team! We only have two more inpatient rounds to go!

Halfway to the finish line!

We are officially halfway done with chemo! Only three more months to go. I had labs drawn Monday and we saw Dr. Skinner. She said that she was very please with my physical exam and that everything was looking good. My hemoglobin is slightly low which is causing me to get short of breath easily. My CA-125 has decreased slightly and is around 5 now, it was around 6-7. Again we can't really trust my cancer marker since a 1 point increase or decrease usually isn't much to make a fuss about. I am officially all healed from surgery! Very exciting news! Took longer than we were all expecting but God has His own timeline.

This weekend, we are preparing for inpatient chemo. I will be taking medications every 6 and every 8 hours starting Saturday morning. I have to wake up in the middle of the night to take them as well. So this usually leads to little sleep for both me and Wil. Since last round went so well, Dr. Skinner said that we can go home whenever the infusion is completed. We would much rather sleep in our own bed, even if that means going home late at night.

Last night I had my GYN cancer support where we had dinner and played dirty Santa. Let me tell you what, these ladies went crazy stealing over some purses and pottery! I always enjoy spending time with these ladies, women who can relate to what I am going through. We had a lot of laughs with some great people.

Me and Tracy Riazzi (one of the best!)

 



 

 

 

Our nurse navigator, Robin, explaining the rules

Our group leader in the middle, Teresa Ball. She does so much for our group and we love her dearly!

Jennifer being a goof with her bow