Well, I think our several years long drought has been eradicated. It's been raining and flooding in these parts for days.
I wonder if my office is under water. Haven't heard yet.
SO....On Friday, I received my first round of chemotherapy with the new medication, and an additional injection of something a day later that was given via this cool gizmo that attached to my arm.
The new regime takes 4 hours now. Ugh.
Thus far, I seem to be having only a couple of side effects. Constipation (with the original cocktail of medication, it was the opposite), and a redness and swelling in my face that started a few hours after the injection device ran it's course yesterday.
I was concerned enough about the facial swelling to call the on call doc at the clinic, just to be sure there was nothing to worry about. She said she thinks it's probably not the injection, but the amount of steroid that was given with the new chemo medication.
She did not indicate any concern about it, and said it should clear up by tomorrow.
I took a benadryl, and it's improving already.
Seems it was just a coincidence that it started after the injection, but we'll see what my doctor has to say about it when I see him before the next round.
All in all, though, I am feeling fine. No nausea, and no other side effects so far other than what I mentioned above. *high five*
(addendum, several hours later: I am having this odd sensation...the skin of the back of my torso hurts and is flushed red, too. Not fun. Not at all. Took ibuprofen, it seems to help a tiny bit. Hoping this goes away quickly, but it's been with me for about 6 hours so far.... ugh.)
The purpose of the additional injection 27 hours after treatment is to boost white blood cell count. The new medication is a lot stronger, and can trash your immune system. This additional medication blocks that action by stimulating the while cells. It can cause facial swelling and redness, and most of the other possible side effects associated with chemo, with the addition of bone pain and spleen swelling or rupture. Whee.
For patients who get treatment on days that are not followed by weekends or holidays (or both, in my case this time), they are required to go back to the clinic to receive the injection, and miss more time off of work to do so.
I am kind of glad that I will be able to use the little device, even if it was a pain to have to wear it on my arm for so long. It's uncomfortable and worrisome, but it's better than having to go to the clinic two days in a row.
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We were hoping to go to the Paseo Arts Festival this weekend, but because of the widespread flooding, we're hesitant to leave the house. If we leave while the streets are clear, and then it pours, the streets to get home may not be passable, AND it's already pouring
What fun is an arts festival in the pouring rain?
I feel for the artists who spent money to participate, as I am sure turn out has been exceptionally low.
I am sad to miss it, but oh well. We got to go last year, and it rained then too, but not like this!!
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My experiment with changing the cats' play/eat/sleep routine seems to be having a positive impact on Pete.
He's been horrible about waking us up in the middle of the night..well, waking ME up, mostly. So I decided to completely change the eating schedule to see if that would work.
Instead of feeding them their moist food when we get home from work, or around that time on the weekends, we are withholding food until bed time.
What I have been doing for my cats for years is feed after work/early evening. Play at bedtime, then a bit of kibble to hold them through the night.
It has worked well for previous cats, but not for Pete.
Now we will not feed until after bedtime playing. THEN, we set up one of our automatic feeders that we got for when we travel, and it goes off at 4:30 am.
The intent is to keep Pete down for the count, so that he stops waking me up in the early morning hours EVERY day.
What has been happening is that every morning, somehow he knows when it is exactly 3 am, and Pete starts flinging himself on my head and face, walking ON my head, laying ON my head, etc.
A 15 pound cat on your face is not sleep-friendly. Cat experts say to just ignore it...but how the hell are you supposed to do that??
The later, "second waking" is usually when Pete gives up on getting me up to participate in whatever it is he wants, so he works on getting Annabel involved in fighting. This part usually starts between 4 and 5 am.
The result is that there is much growling, hissing, and general chaos during the "second waking up" period, which then usually wakes Dave up, too, because the cats keep jumping on and off of the bed, and bouncing off of the foot of the bed, etc.
The new plan seems to have worked somewhat when we did it for the first time Friday night (Pete still woke me at 3, but more gently, and the second waking up was not as chaotic), and it worked even better last night/this morning.
This morning, Pete did not wake me until 4, and then it was not with the usual emphatic attention to my head. He merely crawled onto my up-facing side, and snuggled and purred.
After their 4:30 automated breakfast, he left us alone, and he did not go after Annabel to get her riled up, and I was able to sleep until 9:30 (much needed after being sleepless on Friday night mostly because of the new chemo anxiety.) It was like a miracle.
I am very hopeful that this behavior modification will continue to improve our little family's quality of life!!
I find it encouraging that I had a LOT more to say about Pete and cat behavior modification than I had to say about chemotherapy!
Everyone have a good day, I'll update you again next weekend!
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