Cycle 2, Day 11 - The Chemo Adventure Continues...

Everything was again looking up as I wrote my last posting. By the time I remembered to actually post it things had changed. I went to bed on Thursday night feeling ok. I had had 3 neopogen injections by now, had eaten and drank some throughout the day and only had minor symptoms from the bleomycin. In fact the only symptom I had was a mild fluish feeling which may have also been caused by the neopogen. Things were fine.

When I woke up on Friday morning I felt like I had been hit by a truck (or maybe just a small, slow moving car). I felt aches and pains in my whole upper body (shoulders, neck, arms, etc). When I got up to use the washroom I felt really woozy and had to lie back down again. All this I attributed to muscle and bone pain associated with neopogen so I took some tylenol, stayed in bed and intended to ride it out. Adrienne left for work at the normal time and her Mom came over to watch Anthony. By ten in the morning it was no better and the tylenol wasn't cutting it so Adrienne's Mom was nice enough to go to the drug store to get me T 1's.

Side note: Did you know T1's existed? I did not. I thought there was Tylenol and Tylenol 3 (T3s). It turns out that there also exists T1s and T2s. The T2s are by prescription like T3s but T1s are over the counter, you just have to ask for them. They have codeine, just not as much as T 2s or 3s.

Around the same time I noticed that my picc line, which had just been given a new dressing the day before, was not looking good (I'll spare you the details). So I called the Chemo department and they figured I should have the dressing changed again. They scheduled me for 2 PM.

Adrienne's Dad said he could drive me and would be over around 1:30, so I pulled myself out of bed around 1 and forced myself to shower even though I still didn't feel great. I noticed in the shower that my left arm and shoulder were particularly painful and by the time I got downstairs and was ready to leave for Cancer Care, my left arm had started swelling. If I haven't mentioned yet, my picc line is in my left arm. The first thing I thought when it became swollen was that I had a blood clot, but I had no idea for sure if that made sense or what you do if it was. I also had no idea what best case scenario was but assumed that worse case scenario was an imminent and massive heart attack or something on the way to Cancer Care. I told Adrienne's Dad to drive fast.

When I got there the charge nurse took me in right away and examinned me. She confirmed that I may very well have a blood clot based on the swelling but I would have to have an ultrasound to say for sure. A massive heart attack was probably not immanent though so I could relax. I went for the ultrasound a little while later and indeed I had clotting. In fact I had "significant" clotting from my neck right down my arm in the vein where my picc line was placed. And so my picc line which saved me from so many needles is no more, a nurse removed it shortly thereafter. And add to that even more needles because now I have to get blood thinners injected to break up my clots. And who gets to give those to me? That's right, my sweetheart. I had to call Adrienne at 4 PM just as her school day was finishing so that she could rush down to Cancer Care and learn how to give me a new type of injection. Now Adrienne has to give me 2 injections per day for the next few days. You're probably wondering why I don't man up and give them to myself? I have no good answer, I just can't do it.

So now I wait for the swelling to go down, hopefully over the weekend, and I see my doctor again on Monday to determine if I keep getting injections for a while or switch to oral blood thinners. There never seems to be a dull moment with this chemo stuff.