First Chemo

Chemo therapy 101 - according to Wikipedia, chemotherapy, in its most general sense, is the treatment of disease by chemicals, especially by killing micro-organisms or cancerous cells. In popular usage, it refers to antineoplastic drugs used to treat cancer or the combination of these drugs into a cytotoxic standardized treatment regime.

Most commonly, chemotherapy acts by killing cells that divide rapidly, one of the main properties of most cancer cells. This means that it also harms cells that divide rapidly under normal circumstances: cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract and hair follicles; this results in the most common side effects of chemotherapy - myelosppression (decreased production of blood cells), mucositis (inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract) and alopecia (hair loss).

Remind me again why I'm doing this?? OK, OK, I decided it was the right thing to do, so Tuesday was the start of my toxic poisoning - wait, I mean the delivery of my healing joy juice, by my Super Heroes and my army of microscopic snipers.

DAY ONE

The day started fine, with me having to drive around looking for a parking space for 25 minutes. By the time I arrived at the chemo parlor, my blood pressure was thru the roof. Great way to start!

After a brief refresher course in what I would be going thru, I took a seat, a relatively comfy chair (thankfully - the first session would be about 4 hours long). There were chairs lining the walls of a fairly busy room, with the staff facilities in the center of the room. While I was there, I saw about 8 other people, all women but one, come and go.

My first bag of joy juice (first of four) was a saline solution containing Dexamethasone sod phosphate and Palonosetron hcl. I had taken 5 small tablets of the Dexamethasone the previous evening and that morning prior to treatment. It is a potent synthetic steroid hormone, acting as an anti-inflammatory immunosuppresant, reducing the potential for an allergic reaction to chemical Taxotere. The Palonosetron, also known as Aloxi, is a strong anti-nausea drug that also reduces the potential for fluid retention.

My protocol, or drug regime, is called TCH (Taxotere, Carboplatin and Herceptin). This treatment, my first of six, three weeks apart, began then with the second bag - Docetaxel (Taxotere). This is the one specifically for metastasized breast cancer. I haven't the strength to review all the gawd-awful potential side effects, but the link is full of them. I was told there was a strong possibility of major pain within 5-10 minutes of starting the drip, mainly in the upper chest, neck and back. I should immediately inform the nurses if I was to feel that coming on. In that case they would administer a Benadryl and hydrocortisone IV, an antihistamine which would relieve those symptoms. I didn't need it!

Third bag - Carboplatin. This drug has gained in popularity for treatment of several cancers because of it's greatly reduced number of side effects over previous therapies.

The fourth and final bag for the day was Trastuzumag, or Herceptin. This is the joy juice that goes after the HER2+ bad guys. I'll be taking this one every three weeks for a year. This first session of Herceptin, called immunotherapy versus chemotherapy, as the first two chemicals are designated, lasted for an hour and a half. Future treatments of Herceptin will only take about a half hour.

After the last drip dropped out of the Herceptin bag, my port was flushed with Heparin, an anti-coagulant.

So, how did I feel after this four hours of poison (yeah, yeah, healing joy juice) seeping into my system? Amazingly I felt great. Hungry. A little tired - not unexpected after sitting in one spot for 4 hours. No nausea, no pain. Too soon to be jubilant, but my mind is definitely in a better frame!

DAY TWO

I slept well, which was good after the previous night of contending with the recent surgery for the port and the protruding needle and paraphernalia. Woke up feeling great! Ran some errands, went back to the Cancer Clinic for a shot of Neulasta, which is the stuff that's supposed to boost my immune system - help it produce more white blood cells to keep me healthy throughout this ordeal. Simple shot in the arm, to be administered the day after all chemo treatments.

By the end of the second day, I wasn't feeling as strong. I had a headache, muscle aches in my shoulders and neck. I had been forewarned of this possibility, and told to take a Claritin and a Tylenol. For one such as I, who has lived on pain meds for many years now, I didn't see a little ol' Tylenol being of much help, but I gave it a try. Actually, I took a Claritin and two Tylenol PM, because it was obvious I wouldn't be sleeping. They didn't help at all. So a few hours later, I took a Benadryl and a Vicodin and at least got some sleep.

DAY THREE

I feel like shit today. My head is pounding, I can hear and feel my pulse in my ears, my nose was full of blood, and I ache - everywhere. (Diane, I know you're out there saying 'I told you so'! :o>) I can fix the dry, bloody nose with some KY Jelly - one of the first tricks I learned when I moved to Arizona. Nothing is helping my head or muscle aches, so I'm going back to bed! Let's hope Day Four is better!