Home for...2 weeks?

One week ago today I had my 10th round of chemo – Cisplatin/Doxorubicin. Cisplatin is the rough guy that enjoys knocking me on my ass. It’s hard to avoid feeling ill during and after the drug. If there’s one thing they encourage, it’s LOTS of liquids to flush the drugs out of your system. Sounds easy but it’s not when everything you place into your mouth (including water) makes you want to throw up. Knowing this, we asked if we could take my IV bag buddy “Fred” home for 2 extra days of hydration. You can bring him home as long as there is someone that is willing to pull the needles out after you’re done. My mom shrieks and flails her arms in the air at the thought of it, but luckily my sister has just finished nursing school! How convenient. So we brought Fred home and Michelle came by to yank the needle (thanks Shell). I think the extra hydration helped a little, but I can’t lie – I still feel like garbage. I feel like there are a ton of books on my chest, when i walk it's hard to breathe. I've had this in the past, it's a side effect of the chemo.

This morning I had to go to my local primary care doctor to see how my blood counts are doing. The results came back very low, as expected. However the thing to look out for is a fever, so far I’ve managed to get a fever each time after having Cisplatin; which means you have to be admitted to the hospital and hooked up to antibiotics and fluids. So far so good, fingers crossed.

A few weeks ago they removed my makeshift “cast” and replaced it with some other contraption. That’s really the best way to describe it: a contraption. It’s this (hard) plastic white arm gear that snaps together over your upper arm, then there’s this sweet velcro piece that comes over my shoulder, up across my chest, and sticks together on the other side of my neck. It almost resembles protective football gear. Versace watch out.

I kid. I know it’s not meant to be fashionable. At first it was really uncomfortable but now I’ve gotten used to it. I no longer wear the sling so I am forced to use my arm a bit more, which is a good thing. If you don’t use your muscles for a long time your body simply forgets how to use them. It’s really scary – it happened to me. After the new gear was placed my surgeon told me to try and move my lower arm up and down a few times a day to keep the muscle active. I went home and tried. No dice. It just wouldn’t move, pure dead weight. It wasn’t even that it hurt it just did not want to move. But days have passed and I can now move it again little by little…phew.

Well originally my surgery should have been completed by now. It was scheduled for July 25th but the break has since shifted everything around.

Saw my surgeon again before leaving on Friday to discuss my arms progress. Dr. Athanasian is such a character. He is quiet but has so much presence. When he walks into the room you automatically feel the need to fix your posture and shake his hand. Our visit was pretty short this time, he looked at a new xray of my arm and reiterated how wonderfully the tumor is reacting to the chemo. He looked at the break as well, but is not as happy with the progress of that. It’s healing, but very slowly. I knew this, because when I would get up from sitting I could hear and feel the bones shift. The thought of it makes me nauseous – what else is new. So he decided to give my bones some more time to heal, and to do some more chemo in the meantime. Sounds like a plan to me. The key is to not break anything else during the surgery. The more bone that breaks, the greater chance there is of cancerous cells spreading – we do not want that. He also mentioned that in one of my next visits I will be meeting with the plastic surgeon as well. I’ll explain the surgery in detail in another posting, but here I will just say that it is intense and the room will be filled with loads of surgeons. The estimated time of my surgery is 10 – 12 hours. I’m still in shock about that one. Depending on my progress, my surgery will either be the last week of August, or the first week of September.

Ah, we did have another encounter with the infamous Dipsy Doodle. This time she had wandered over to the out-patient side. She wheeled her blood pressure machine over to us, big dopey eyes all lit up with an open smile, “HEY!! What are you guys doing here!?”…hmm well…

Anyway, overall I’m doing well. A little bored and a little house trapped – but otherwise ok! Once I’m feeling better some of you guys should come watch movies with me.