The Board
The infusion.
Friday, March 9, 2012
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:)
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
It's procedure time
This is where I had my IV put in for mobilisation. It is only an IV line, just about everyone has had it done before. But this for me was different. I have never had chemo before, so this did get the nervousness going a bit. Not that my BP would give anything away, it was a picture perfect 117 over 73. This video does however highlight the fact I need to lose weight. Well in August anyway. Stay well:)
Waiting....
Well the day has finally arrived. This morning I woke up at the Senaca Hotel bright and early so I had time to get ready for my 7.30am appointment at the second floor of the Feinberg Pavilion. Because I had my overnight bag and I was worried about being late we decided to catch a cab.
At around 7.45am we were greeted by the admissions representative who told us to sit tight whilst they tried to prepare a room for us, so we waited. The waiting doesn't really bother me. I know I'll be in here overnight so whether I wait now or later is really of no consequence.
At around 8.30 the rep came back and we were off to find my hospital room. It was quite a hike. We took the elevator down to the basement and from there we walked through the bowels of the hospital to the Prentice Women's Building where I am to undergo mobilisation chemotherapy. At this point the admitting rep said his goodbyes and I was introduced to Marie, my Patient Care Technician (PCT) and Jon the RN. After the standard formality with the paperwork and signing the necessary disclaimers, Jon hooked me up to the IV and started running fluids through.
At 11.00 Amy came in to ask me all the standard questions. Do I have diabetes? Do I smoke? Have I ever had a toy car get stuck in my ear? Have I ever got my hand caught in a vending machine? (FYI, the answer is no to all) She also ran me through the whole procedure and answered all my questions so I would know what to expect.
Now I am just waiting for the nurse to come in and get the ball rolling. All the meds have been ordered, Dr Burt has signed off on everything, so all that's left to do is get this party started. Well, infusion anyway. Stay well:)
At around 7.45am we were greeted by the admissions representative who told us to sit tight whilst they tried to prepare a room for us, so we waited. The waiting doesn't really bother me. I know I'll be in here overnight so whether I wait now or later is really of no consequence.
At around 8.30 the rep came back and we were off to find my hospital room. It was quite a hike. We took the elevator down to the basement and from there we walked through the bowels of the hospital to the Prentice Women's Building where I am to undergo mobilisation chemotherapy. At this point the admitting rep said his goodbyes and I was introduced to Marie, my Patient Care Technician (PCT) and Jon the RN. After the standard formality with the paperwork and signing the necessary disclaimers, Jon hooked me up to the IV and started running fluids through.
At 11.00 Amy came in to ask me all the standard questions. Do I have diabetes? Do I smoke? Have I ever had a toy car get stuck in my ear? Have I ever got my hand caught in a vending machine? (FYI, the answer is no to all) She also ran me through the whole procedure and answered all my questions so I would know what to expect.
Now I am just waiting for the nurse to come in and get the ball rolling. All the meds have been ordered, Dr Burt has signed off on everything, so all that's left to do is get this party started. Well, infusion anyway. Stay well:)
Monday, March 5, 2012
Thinking smarter
Innovation in the medical field does not always come from the creation of a new drug, the invention of new equipment or the discovery of a new procedure. Sometime it just comes from thinking smarter and using all the tools available to us for their maximum potential.
Personally I find this story site inspiring as it does not necessarily take a doctor or scientist to come up with an idea like this (although it probably did) and shows that anyone with a good idea could probably help. This is the longest kidney transplant chain ever.
Kidney transplants are nothing new. They have been around for a while. Unfortunately there are more people that need kidneys than there are kidneys available. Either one has to wait for the tragic demise of someone who has agreed to donate their organs or rely on a friend, family member or loved one to donate one to you. Enter the kidney transplant chain.
You are willing to donate a kidney to a loved one, but you are incompatible. However, there is a match out there so you donate your kidney to them. Their loved one then donates their kidney to someone else in a kind of pay it forward scenario and eventually someone donates a kidney to your loved one.
This is just what happened in this case. The story was published by the NY Times where 30 people donated kidneys to strangers so their loved one could receive a kidney. Here is the story:-
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/health/lives-forever-linked-through-kidney-transplant-chain-124.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid=fb-share
As a result, 30 people have had their lives improved and/or saved by being able to receive a kidney and there are 30 less people on the transplant list, which means that those remaining are a little more likely to receive a life changing kidney if one becomes available. Thanks to Dr Goldfarb who drew my attention to this article. Stay well:)
Personally I find this story site inspiring as it does not necessarily take a doctor or scientist to come up with an idea like this (although it probably did) and shows that anyone with a good idea could probably help. This is the longest kidney transplant chain ever.
Kidney transplants are nothing new. They have been around for a while. Unfortunately there are more people that need kidneys than there are kidneys available. Either one has to wait for the tragic demise of someone who has agreed to donate their organs or rely on a friend, family member or loved one to donate one to you. Enter the kidney transplant chain.
You are willing to donate a kidney to a loved one, but you are incompatible. However, there is a match out there so you donate your kidney to them. Their loved one then donates their kidney to someone else in a kind of pay it forward scenario and eventually someone donates a kidney to your loved one.
This is just what happened in this case. The story was published by the NY Times where 30 people donated kidneys to strangers so their loved one could receive a kidney. Here is the story:-
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/health/lives-forever-linked-through-kidney-transplant-chain-124.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid=fb-share
As a result, 30 people have had their lives improved and/or saved by being able to receive a kidney and there are 30 less people on the transplant list, which means that those remaining are a little more likely to receive a life changing kidney if one becomes available. Thanks to Dr Goldfarb who drew my attention to this article. Stay well:)
Museum Pictures
In my post about the science and industry museum I talked about how visually stunning all the museum's were. So, I thought I'd show you some pictures. I cannot take credit for taking these myself, I ripped them off google images. Stay well:)
Science and Industry Museum
Field Museum
Adler Planetarium
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