Side effects that is. No major upsets though. These side effects were nothing major but in the interests of being thorough I thought it important to include them.
Hiccups - And not just any hiccups, these were so loud they could be heard on the south side of the Chicago river and made such a change in the air pressure everyone yawned to equalise their ears. Honestly, they were loud but they didn't annoy me any more than normal hiccups.
Dry lips - A combination of chemo, air conditioning and mild dehydration. We have all had it before. I need not elaborate.
Dry hands - Again probably due to the chemo and air con but also because I was almost obsessively washing my hands all the time. It didn't hurt or itch and cleared up with some moisturiser.
Well, I think that is it now. If I think of any more I will simply add them here rather than writing a new post. Until next time, stay well:)
Showing posts with label cytoxan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cytoxan. Show all posts
Monday, April 30, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Side Effects
I really think this is an important post. What I thought I'd do is list all the side effects that I suffered during my stem cell transplant (SCT) but before I start there is something I need to say. This won't be a pretty post, some of these side effects were not fun. I don't want to dissuade people from thinking about having the procedure though. In hind sight, if I was where I was six months ago, even knowing what I know now I would do it again. To me beating the disease is far more important than a couple of months of discomfort.
However, I think that the most important thing is to be informed and I hope that my experiences will give people that are about to go through the procedure an idea of what to expect. Honestly, anyone that has a stem cell transplant cannot expect it to be a walk in the park, but one thing I kept telling myself through the procedure and this saying has relevance to many is, "I'm not doing this because it is easy, I'm doing it because it is worth it."
Right now I'm at the end of the SCT and it is all about recovery for me now but here are my list of side effects. Please bare in mind that this is not an exhaustive list of all side effect for anyone having an SCT or being treated by cytoxan. These are the side effects I experienced.
Hair loss - No surprises here. This is one of the most common side effects of chemotherapy. This one really didn't bother me. I felt like I was channeling Vin Diesel;) Another plus is that I haven't had to shave my face in four weeks and I still look like I had a run in with the cold steel this morning. On the down side, sorry ladies, the hair loss seems to work from the top down. The hairs on my legs have not gone anywhere.
Nausea and Vomiting - Another very common side effect. However, it is unrelenting with chemo. It took the whole range of anti-nausea medications to subdue this one, and it has taken more than two weeks for me to get even some of my appetite back.
Saliva build up - I got heaps of saliva building up in my mouth. If I didn't spit it out I would vomit.
Bad tastes - Post transplant I got a horrible, soapy, fragrant taste in my mouth like I'd been chewing on roses. This lasted for about three days.
Dizziness - Throughout the whole procedure I felt dizzy and I still do, but it is getting better every day.
Rash - I got a rash after transplant. The doctors biopsied it and tested it but I wasn't really worried as it didn't hurt or itch. It was later diagnosed as folliculitis.
Low blood pressure - And I mean really low. A combination of the drugs, procedure and mild dehydration led me to having a BP of 75/47. I even passed out. You can read that story here.
Fever - I think it was day +3 they took my temperature and I was running a fever of 100.4F. I was surprised as I did not feel like I had a fever but the thermometer does not lie. Some tylenol and antibiotics did the trick and I was fine.
Nasty poos - I did not have diarrhoea and I was not constipated but I had awful poos for the duration of the transplant. They were sticky which made them hard to evacuate and clean up afterwards. Chemo attacks the lining of the whole intestinal tract from mouth to anus so I think this had something to do with it. They also burned fiercely like I had just the night before battled the force 10 vindaloo at Mr Singh's Curry House of Pain.
PICC line pain. It didn't hurt while it was in. It didn't hurt for the first four days after extraction. But it hurts now. I think this is normal though.
Well, I think that's about it. I hope I haven't grossed you all out too much but I think it is important to give all the facts so people can make informed decisions. Until next time, stay well:)
However, I think that the most important thing is to be informed and I hope that my experiences will give people that are about to go through the procedure an idea of what to expect. Honestly, anyone that has a stem cell transplant cannot expect it to be a walk in the park, but one thing I kept telling myself through the procedure and this saying has relevance to many is, "I'm not doing this because it is easy, I'm doing it because it is worth it."
Right now I'm at the end of the SCT and it is all about recovery for me now but here are my list of side effects. Please bare in mind that this is not an exhaustive list of all side effect for anyone having an SCT or being treated by cytoxan. These are the side effects I experienced.
Hair loss - No surprises here. This is one of the most common side effects of chemotherapy. This one really didn't bother me. I felt like I was channeling Vin Diesel;) Another plus is that I haven't had to shave my face in four weeks and I still look like I had a run in with the cold steel this morning. On the down side, sorry ladies, the hair loss seems to work from the top down. The hairs on my legs have not gone anywhere.
Nausea and Vomiting - Another very common side effect. However, it is unrelenting with chemo. It took the whole range of anti-nausea medications to subdue this one, and it has taken more than two weeks for me to get even some of my appetite back.
Saliva build up - I got heaps of saliva building up in my mouth. If I didn't spit it out I would vomit.
Bad tastes - Post transplant I got a horrible, soapy, fragrant taste in my mouth like I'd been chewing on roses. This lasted for about three days.
Dizziness - Throughout the whole procedure I felt dizzy and I still do, but it is getting better every day.
Rash - I got a rash after transplant. The doctors biopsied it and tested it but I wasn't really worried as it didn't hurt or itch. It was later diagnosed as folliculitis.
Low blood pressure - And I mean really low. A combination of the drugs, procedure and mild dehydration led me to having a BP of 75/47. I even passed out. You can read that story here.
Fever - I think it was day +3 they took my temperature and I was running a fever of 100.4F. I was surprised as I did not feel like I had a fever but the thermometer does not lie. Some tylenol and antibiotics did the trick and I was fine.
Nasty poos - I did not have diarrhoea and I was not constipated but I had awful poos for the duration of the transplant. They were sticky which made them hard to evacuate and clean up afterwards. Chemo attacks the lining of the whole intestinal tract from mouth to anus so I think this had something to do with it. They also burned fiercely like I had just the night before battled the force 10 vindaloo at Mr Singh's Curry House of Pain.
PICC line pain. It didn't hurt while it was in. It didn't hurt for the first four days after extraction. But it hurts now. I think this is normal though.
Well, I think that's about it. I hope I haven't grossed you all out too much but I think it is important to give all the facts so people can make informed decisions. Until next time, stay well:)
Thursday, March 8, 2012
I can't sleep.....
With all the drugs they have given me over the last 24 hours I can't sleep. I'll start with where I left off last post. I am now pretty much all the way through now so I should be able to give you a fairly accurate account of what happened.
The first thing that they started was the fluids. 150mm per hour of saline for 24 hours. That is 3.6 litres of fluid over the entire day plus all the water and other fluids I ingest. After that the fun stuff starts. The first drug they give you (and for me that started at 3.00pm) was a drug called Mesna. Mesna is a drug they use to alleviate the symptoms of the chemotherapy drugs. How it works I am not quite sure. When I came in yesterday I didn't know it was on the cocktail menu so I haven't had time to research it yet.
After that they ran through a dose of zofran for a prophylactic anti nausea, they also ran through a shot of dexamethazone for the same reason. This was weird they said that it could make your arse feel like it was on fire. I wouldn't say it felt like my arse was on fire, but I did feel rather intense pins and needles all over my anus. Delightful hey. Luckily, It only lasted a couple of minutes and then it was over.
Next, the main event. The chemotherapy. They give just a single dose of a drug called Cytoxan in order to kill off a few blood cells. The resulting outcome is the body goes into stem cell overdrive in order to replace what has been lost, so in ten days when harvesting starts their are plenty of little stemmies to collect. The cytoxan was run for about two hours. But there was a problem.
I starter getting a side effect to the cytoxan called wasabi nose, because you get a burning sensation in your nose. Seriously I felt like I had been sniffing chilli powder and I was twitching my nose like a rabbit on steroids. In order to get past this the infusion rate of the cytoxan was reduced and gave me some benadryl which made me feel drowsy.
In order to make sure that I wasn't retaining all the water that they had given me they also gave me a drug called lasix which is designed to make you go to the toilet. So if it wasn't enough to chuck 3.6 litres of fluid through my system I needed something to make me go even more. Over the night I had three courses and on the first one I passed over a litre of urine in 45 minutes. That level of urine output made my kidneys hurt more, so to combat this they gave me some Norco and Fiorcet, which were both analgesia to arrest the pain, and this seemed to work fine.
The other problem I had was that after I ate my evening meal of lasagne and mac and cheese I started to feel a little nauseas. I decided to tell the nurse as I thought it best to nip this one in the bud, which I think was the right thing to do as they gave me more zofran and I felt fine. Courtesy of the benadryl I then slept for four hours where I woke up at two and couldn't go back to sleep. So I polished of the remaining of season two of Supernatural. After breakfast I fell asleep again and woke up around 12.30, just in time for lunch.
So how do I feel. Honestly, for those that are following me through the SCT process, there is nothing to fear from mobilisation (so far). Apparently my WBC will hit rock bottom in about five days so I might not be over the fun part yet. Also, hair falls out about the five day mark so I will keep you informed of any follicle displacement. So right now, all is good. I have lots of reading to do and I still need instruction on what to do with the prophylactic medications they want me to take at home and the neupogen shots.
I will keep you posted. Until next time, stay well:)
The first thing that they started was the fluids. 150mm per hour of saline for 24 hours. That is 3.6 litres of fluid over the entire day plus all the water and other fluids I ingest. After that the fun stuff starts. The first drug they give you (and for me that started at 3.00pm) was a drug called Mesna. Mesna is a drug they use to alleviate the symptoms of the chemotherapy drugs. How it works I am not quite sure. When I came in yesterday I didn't know it was on the cocktail menu so I haven't had time to research it yet.
After that they ran through a dose of zofran for a prophylactic anti nausea, they also ran through a shot of dexamethazone for the same reason. This was weird they said that it could make your arse feel like it was on fire. I wouldn't say it felt like my arse was on fire, but I did feel rather intense pins and needles all over my anus. Delightful hey. Luckily, It only lasted a couple of minutes and then it was over.
Next, the main event. The chemotherapy. They give just a single dose of a drug called Cytoxan in order to kill off a few blood cells. The resulting outcome is the body goes into stem cell overdrive in order to replace what has been lost, so in ten days when harvesting starts their are plenty of little stemmies to collect. The cytoxan was run for about two hours. But there was a problem.
I starter getting a side effect to the cytoxan called wasabi nose, because you get a burning sensation in your nose. Seriously I felt like I had been sniffing chilli powder and I was twitching my nose like a rabbit on steroids. In order to get past this the infusion rate of the cytoxan was reduced and gave me some benadryl which made me feel drowsy.
In order to make sure that I wasn't retaining all the water that they had given me they also gave me a drug called lasix which is designed to make you go to the toilet. So if it wasn't enough to chuck 3.6 litres of fluid through my system I needed something to make me go even more. Over the night I had three courses and on the first one I passed over a litre of urine in 45 minutes. That level of urine output made my kidneys hurt more, so to combat this they gave me some Norco and Fiorcet, which were both analgesia to arrest the pain, and this seemed to work fine.
The other problem I had was that after I ate my evening meal of lasagne and mac and cheese I started to feel a little nauseas. I decided to tell the nurse as I thought it best to nip this one in the bud, which I think was the right thing to do as they gave me more zofran and I felt fine. Courtesy of the benadryl I then slept for four hours where I woke up at two and couldn't go back to sleep. So I polished of the remaining of season two of Supernatural. After breakfast I fell asleep again and woke up around 12.30, just in time for lunch.
So how do I feel. Honestly, for those that are following me through the SCT process, there is nothing to fear from mobilisation (so far). Apparently my WBC will hit rock bottom in about five days so I might not be over the fun part yet. Also, hair falls out about the five day mark so I will keep you informed of any follicle displacement. So right now, all is good. I have lots of reading to do and I still need instruction on what to do with the prophylactic medications they want me to take at home and the neupogen shots.
I will keep you posted. Until next time, stay well:)
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