This past week has been pretty rough. My bone pain was pretty strong on Sunday and Monday, and my mom ended up informing my doctor about it (as she works in the cancer center) and my doctor prescribed stronger pain pills which have seemed to help. Over the weekend, my left middle finger started to swell and the nail looked like it was raising. By Sunday, my finger was turning black around the nail and it looked like I had closed my finger in a car door. I call it my "Halloween Finger" as its black and gnarly looking and, well... just in time for Halloween! I could seriously scare the crap out of some people with it. Monday I noticed the fingernail on my first finger on my right hand was coming lose on one side. Denial was working well for me and I was trying to be gentle with it so as not to lose it; that thought just creeps me out. I don't do well with fingernails and eyeballs - they gross me out when there are problems with either of those! Mom and I were so concerned about my middle finger possibly being infected that I was able to get an appointment with the on-call oncologist Tuesday, October 22 and have it looked at. Just before I was walking out of work to go to the appointment, I was fussing with my wallet and I'm still not sure exactly how it happened - but my finger slipped and my nail caught and ripped, and almost all of it came off my right pointer/index finger. I was in soooooo much pain. It seriously took my breath away for a few moments and I was sobbing in my office. I eventually composed myself enough to grab a Kleenex and some tape from my desk and wrap my fingernail so I could leave to drive myself to the clinic for my appointment. I cried almost the entire way there from the pain and also a little frustration of having crappy nails that are falling apart! The good news is that my middle finger was/is not infected. The bad news is that the finger is scary and that's the result of Taxol. Just one of the side effects I'll have to live with for now.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Friday, October 4, 2013
Chemo Countdow
I'm now five treatments into the T/H combo of chemo that I will receive, and so far the Taxol and Herceptin have had some nasty little side effects that are different from the Adriamycin and Cyclophosphamide that I previously received.
I was lucky on A/C in that I didn't have many side effects. A small rough patch on the roof of my mouth and a little soreness on my tongue around the fourth treatment, a very little bit of diarrhea, but no nausea. Food didn't taste very good and some was just downright disgusting. But otherwise, I was never "sick" from the A\C combination.
Taxol/Herceptin however, sucks. The first treatment was by far the worst. The infusion went fine and I sailed through work on Friday, September 6, but all hell broke lose that weekend. Saturday I woke to pain and feeling cold. I'm never cold. I'm always sweating and bitching about the heat, so to be cold in early September is odd for me. My legs felt like what I imagined it would be like to have "restless leg syndrome", and ached; I vaguely remember shin splints from my time on the varsity basketball team in high school. As I lay in bed, I would constantly keep moving my legs and trying to get comfortable, but nothing seemed to work. Saturday night I was shaking so bad my back hurt, my spine and shoulder blades felt like they were on fire from the violent shaking. My body would tense and I would just shake uncontrollably, and have to use every bit of willpower to make myself relax and stop. However, as soon as I got relaxed, the shaking would return. I was wearing a long sleeve T-shirt, under 2 blankets and still couldn't get "warm" or stop shaking. Finally, exhausted I managed to fall asleep but the sleep was restless. Sunday morning I experienced for the first time bone pain. I had heard of this from other patients, but not yet experienced it myself and was honestly hoping I wouldn't! My legs ached and some of my joints felt like I had arthritis. I took 6 ibuprofen in 5 hours and the limit was 8 in a 24 hour period. Thankfully I was able to get a prescription from my doctor for the pain which helped tremendously.
I was lucky on A/C in that I didn't have many side effects. A small rough patch on the roof of my mouth and a little soreness on my tongue around the fourth treatment, a very little bit of diarrhea, but no nausea. Food didn't taste very good and some was just downright disgusting. But otherwise, I was never "sick" from the A\C combination.
Taxol/Herceptin however, sucks. The first treatment was by far the worst. The infusion went fine and I sailed through work on Friday, September 6, but all hell broke lose that weekend. Saturday I woke to pain and feeling cold. I'm never cold. I'm always sweating and bitching about the heat, so to be cold in early September is odd for me. My legs felt like what I imagined it would be like to have "restless leg syndrome", and ached; I vaguely remember shin splints from my time on the varsity basketball team in high school. As I lay in bed, I would constantly keep moving my legs and trying to get comfortable, but nothing seemed to work. Saturday night I was shaking so bad my back hurt, my spine and shoulder blades felt like they were on fire from the violent shaking. My body would tense and I would just shake uncontrollably, and have to use every bit of willpower to make myself relax and stop. However, as soon as I got relaxed, the shaking would return. I was wearing a long sleeve T-shirt, under 2 blankets and still couldn't get "warm" or stop shaking. Finally, exhausted I managed to fall asleep but the sleep was restless. Sunday morning I experienced for the first time bone pain. I had heard of this from other patients, but not yet experienced it myself and was honestly hoping I wouldn't! My legs ached and some of my joints felt like I had arthritis. I took 6 ibuprofen in 5 hours and the limit was 8 in a 24 hour period. Thankfully I was able to get a prescription from my doctor for the pain which helped tremendously.
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