It's getting eerily close now, only three days until my new birthday. Luckily, so far I have not felt that bad, and today I managed to get my morning routine out the way before they started all the premeds. I also managed to get the first round of lasix out the way early so that when the ativan, benadryl and chemotherapy came to the party I was ready for nothing but a nice little nap. And that I did. I felt a little bit bad for my mother who was there to keep me company and all I did was sleep.
But it hasn't all been plain sailing today. To start with I have found it much harder to sleep at the right times. I was getting into a routine of sleeping when the sedating meds were in force, and then being awake when they were off. Now, no matter how much steroids they give me I still feel tired. I think I will be hitting a period of 16 - 18 hours of sleep per day.
Secondly, as I had expected, my appetite has diminished somewhat. I have had a little nausea but no vomiting. Realistically I feel quite lucky. After reading about the experiences of others who have had chemotherapy for the same reason and for others, nausea and vomitting is one thing that they have not been able to control no matter what the medications they have used.
As I said before, expect the worst but hope for the best. So far I admit it has been no picnic, but it has been way better than I thought it would be. Realistically I always assumed it would be somewhere in the middle, but I am currently batting well above average. Touch wood, I will stay that way.
The last side effect that has been bestowed upon me, and it is really not that big a problem is the hiccups. Yes, after each meal or a big drink I seem to have an uncontrollable bout of hiccups. But come on, is it really that bad? Everyone has had the hiccups from time to time and they always seem to pass after about five or ten minutes.
So that is it for my day. Right now I am just waiting for the rabbit ATG to run out and one more dose of lasix and then I'lll be done. Just one more day of chemo left, two more ATG's followed by stem cell infusion. It's all getting eerily close. Stay well:)
Showing posts with label rabbit ATG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rabbit ATG. Show all posts
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Day -4
Day -4 has been very similar to Day -5. The main difference being that today I was foiled by my own procrastination. My PCT came in bright and early and wrapped my arm up ready for a shower. I then proceeded to lie in bed for another half an hour because I was feeling extremely lethargic. Just as I was about to make the giant leap from bed to bathroom a nurse came in to administer my pre-medications. Unfortunately this meant that I had to postpone my shower again.
So I decided to remove the cling wrap around my PICC line as the pre-medications were slowly infused. At this time, my breakfast also arrived which fortunately I managed quite easily. At this point the combination of Benadryl and Ativan had kicked in quite nicely and I slept through until lunchtime. After lunch, which also went down quite easily, I had the pre-meds for the Rabbit ATG, which again made me feel sleepy. Unfortunately, at this point, they also gave me Lasix so, instead of sleeping, I was up every ten minutes to relieve my bladder. During this time I watched a movie called The In-Betweeners. It was very funny but I would not recommend it for children or the morally sensitive.
It was at this point things took a small turn for the worse as I started to get a stomach ache and I felt a little nauseous. Instead of taking more Zofran I decided to take some Composine as I am only allowed one more dose of Zofran between now and midnight.
At this point I went to the toilet and had diarrhoea. The nurses were really good and helped me back to bed as I was also feeling a little lightheaded. They have also put a "hat" over the toilet seat to collect a sample from my next deposit.
Right now the Rabbit ATG is still running and it will be for another 6 hours but I think it is the Cytoxan that is really knocking me around. And the best part is I get to do it all again tomorrow. In all honesty I have always said that I have hoped for the best but prepared for the worst, well mentally anyway. So far the process has not been the best but it has been far from the worst I had expected.
The nurses have been absolutely excellent and extremely diligent about listening to all my complaints and given me all the options associated with them. I believe one of the best things about North Western Hospital is that they don't use any agency nurses like they do in Australia and, although some of the agency nurses are good, there is always a clear difference between the full and part time hospital nurses and the agency nurses.
Right now, I am starting to feel to better. I seem to be going in a cyclical up and down pattern and I think I am heading up at the moment. Thanks to my mother who is diligently typing this post as I dictate her on my hospital bed. Until next time, stay well :)
So I decided to remove the cling wrap around my PICC line as the pre-medications were slowly infused. At this time, my breakfast also arrived which fortunately I managed quite easily. At this point the combination of Benadryl and Ativan had kicked in quite nicely and I slept through until lunchtime. After lunch, which also went down quite easily, I had the pre-meds for the Rabbit ATG, which again made me feel sleepy. Unfortunately, at this point, they also gave me Lasix so, instead of sleeping, I was up every ten minutes to relieve my bladder. During this time I watched a movie called The In-Betweeners. It was very funny but I would not recommend it for children or the morally sensitive.
It was at this point things took a small turn for the worse as I started to get a stomach ache and I felt a little nauseous. Instead of taking more Zofran I decided to take some Composine as I am only allowed one more dose of Zofran between now and midnight.
At this point I went to the toilet and had diarrhoea. The nurses were really good and helped me back to bed as I was also feeling a little lightheaded. They have also put a "hat" over the toilet seat to collect a sample from my next deposit.
Right now the Rabbit ATG is still running and it will be for another 6 hours but I think it is the Cytoxan that is really knocking me around. And the best part is I get to do it all again tomorrow. In all honesty I have always said that I have hoped for the best but prepared for the worst, well mentally anyway. So far the process has not been the best but it has been far from the worst I had expected.
The nurses have been absolutely excellent and extremely diligent about listening to all my complaints and given me all the options associated with them. I believe one of the best things about North Western Hospital is that they don't use any agency nurses like they do in Australia and, although some of the agency nurses are good, there is always a clear difference between the full and part time hospital nurses and the agency nurses.
Right now, I am starting to feel to better. I seem to be going in a cyclical up and down pattern and I think I am heading up at the moment. Thanks to my mother who is diligently typing this post as I dictate her on my hospital bed. Until next time, stay well :)
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Day -6
Day -6 was pretty much the same as day -7. The only difference was the main drug they gave me. Instead of the Rituxan, I was taking the rabbit ATG. So now instead of having my B cells ablated I now have my T cell ablated too. Two letters down, only twenty four left. Well, not quite. Tomorrow I will start the chemo regime for real and that is there to destroy all the white blood cells.
So today was very similar to yesterday. Apart for the main difference that I mentioned above, I had only two smaller difference. First, instead of just having 250mgs of solumedrol, I had 1000mgs. That is an insane amount of steroids to have floating around your system. Oh well I guess I will have to give up my dream of a call up to open the batting for the Australian cricket team as I'm sure that will raise a red flag with any international doping agency around the world. Just so you know, the human body naturally produces 7-10mgs of steroids per day, So I'm only 100 times above normal right now.
The second change is that the Rituxan was run over two hours, the ATG has been run over ten hours so currently, as I started at 2pm I am still having it infused. For any doctors that read this I'm having a hard time figuring out how the drug is derived and its actual mechanism of action. Maybe I'm stupid, maybe (and I hope) it's complicated, so if someone could explain it to me in layman's terms, I'd appreciate it. My cousin is an anaesthesiologist and I have a friend who is a chemist (you know who you are) so I'm sure someone can explain it to me.
Well day -5 should be interesting. I'll let you all know how it goes. Until then, stay well:)
So today was very similar to yesterday. Apart for the main difference that I mentioned above, I had only two smaller difference. First, instead of just having 250mgs of solumedrol, I had 1000mgs. That is an insane amount of steroids to have floating around your system. Oh well I guess I will have to give up my dream of a call up to open the batting for the Australian cricket team as I'm sure that will raise a red flag with any international doping agency around the world. Just so you know, the human body naturally produces 7-10mgs of steroids per day, So I'm only 100 times above normal right now.
The second change is that the Rituxan was run over two hours, the ATG has been run over ten hours so currently, as I started at 2pm I am still having it infused. For any doctors that read this I'm having a hard time figuring out how the drug is derived and its actual mechanism of action. Maybe I'm stupid, maybe (and I hope) it's complicated, so if someone could explain it to me in layman's terms, I'd appreciate it. My cousin is an anaesthesiologist and I have a friend who is a chemist (you know who you are) so I'm sure someone can explain it to me.
Well day -5 should be interesting. I'll let you all know how it goes. Until then, stay well:)
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Day -7
You know, when I come to hospital I like to hope for the best but expect the worst. So for the last 24 hours I have been trying to stay positive but at the same time I have been trying to steel my mind for any nasty surprises. Fortunately, so far it has been a breeze but it is only my first day and I'm sure that things will get harder as time goes by.
So why was today easier than expected? Well to start with the PICC line catheter was 100 times more comfortable than the central line catheter that I had for the harvest. This will hopefully be a benefit that will remain for the whole two and a half weeks, and I must admit that I can't see any reason why this wouldn't be the case.
The second reason is that I didn't actually start the chemo today. The protocol changes slightly for every patient, but I am not actually going to do any chemo until Thursday or day -5. Today all I had was a dose of rituxan. Rituxan is used to target B cells which are one of the five types of white blood cells or lymphocytes in the blood. They didn't expect any side effects, and none were realised. Well no side effects anyway, but I do think I am out of the woods now. Tomorrow, there is no chemo again and no Rituxan either. Instead I will have rabbit ATG, which is used to target the T cells, another lymphocyte, in a similar way to how Rituxan attacks the B cells.
Another plus is I have a much better room than I had for mobilisation. The best rooms with nicest view are east facing over the lake. My room is north facing, but is probably the second best view and I have two big windows as opposed to one small window. However, the room is slightly smaller, but this doesn't bother me at all. I will get some video for you tomorrow. Until then, stay well:)
So why was today easier than expected? Well to start with the PICC line catheter was 100 times more comfortable than the central line catheter that I had for the harvest. This will hopefully be a benefit that will remain for the whole two and a half weeks, and I must admit that I can't see any reason why this wouldn't be the case.
The second reason is that I didn't actually start the chemo today. The protocol changes slightly for every patient, but I am not actually going to do any chemo until Thursday or day -5. Today all I had was a dose of rituxan. Rituxan is used to target B cells which are one of the five types of white blood cells or lymphocytes in the blood. They didn't expect any side effects, and none were realised. Well no side effects anyway, but I do think I am out of the woods now. Tomorrow, there is no chemo again and no Rituxan either. Instead I will have rabbit ATG, which is used to target the T cells, another lymphocyte, in a similar way to how Rituxan attacks the B cells.
Another plus is I have a much better room than I had for mobilisation. The best rooms with nicest view are east facing over the lake. My room is north facing, but is probably the second best view and I have two big windows as opposed to one small window. However, the room is slightly smaller, but this doesn't bother me at all. I will get some video for you tomorrow. Until then, stay well:)
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