Last Dose of Chemo Pills Today
My regime is three weeks with the first day being the day of the infusion. I begin taking chemo pills that evening and continue taking them two times a day for the next two weeks. On the last day, I only take them in the morning. Today is that day. So I will have a full week of no chemo pills! I am curious to see if I feel any different. The last couple of days I have had a lot of discomfort in my abdomen. Some bloating, and I have had trouble sleeping. Today I will also begin taking a pill that should help with sleep. I had two medical appointments this past week and have several new meds. It is time to make a chart to attach to the medicine cabinet door. I can't keep up!
My first appointment was with Mateo Siefert, my nurse practitioner. Have I mentioned how great I think he is? He is my "team leader" and I will be meeting with him monthly. He will be taking care of things like pain management and help sleeping etc. He will also be keeping tabs on how Hubby and I are doing over all. He prescribed the meds to help me sleep that I mentioned above. He also prescribed a potent pain med. Hubby had to do training on what to do if I accidentally OD. I have to take pee tests each month as well. I am a druggie!
My second appointment was with a Rheumatologist. That was very informative! My oncologist was concerned about my Lupus like symptoms and choose not to give me one of my chemo drugs until a Rheumatologist verified exactly was my diagnosis is. Although I have to wait on results of blood tests, the good news is that I likely do no have Lupus. I have extremely sensitive skin, which accounts for a lot of the rashes etc. I also have Thoracic Outlet Obstruction Syndrome. I have known this for a long time. I also have Raynaud's Syndrome. Again, I have known this for most of my life. What I didn't know is that the first syndrome basically causes the second, which makes perfect sense. So I likely don't have a systemic issue, just a poorly wired issue! My new doctor, Scott Sterner, is great and took lots of time to investigate my strangeness. He asked if I noticed a difference in blood pressure readings from right arm to left arm. I realized when he said that, indeed, I do seem to have lower readings on my left arm. Next time I have my blood pressure taken by a nurse, I am going to ask if both arms can be done at the same time. When I did my blood draw, I had the same issue I usually have: the blood begins to trickle into the tube then slows way down or even stops. I realized that the way my arm was positioned, my shoulder was kinda of hunched in order to have the crook of my arm face up and elevated. I gently repositioned in my chair and moved my head to the side. The blood immediately flowed into the tube! So the position my arm is generally in for a blood drawl is cutting off the blood flow! I am going to begin focusing on exercises that will help me keep my upper chest open and my shoulders back and down. That might help with the Reynauds episodes. Dr. Sterner also prescribed Viagra to help with blood flow issues. Yikes! He also suggested lithium battery powered gloves for cold days. I will be doing a search on line for those puppies!
And I did make it to both nights of the concert! On the first night, we were waiting outside for the doors to open when the concert organizer, Dwight Loop, stuck his head out and asked for the Sylvesters. He escorted us in and took us up to the small balcony and offered us a choice of comfortable seating. We choose a couch that was against the back wall. A couple of rows of stools were in front of it and I realized we would not have a very good view, but the comfort of the couch would be worth it. Steve Roach came up and sat with me for a bit and told me how honored he was that I would make the effort to come to the concert despite my health issues. What a wonderful man he is. He then said that we wouldn't be able to see so we needed to move the couch, which he proceeded to do! After the second concert, he posed for a picture with me for Hubby. I asked him if he would be coming back to Santa Fe next year (he did a two night concert last year as well, which we attended) and he leaned into me and said, "Yes I am and so are you and that's a promise we are making each other right now!" I couldn't help but tear up. A lot of people aren't aware of Grammy winner Steve Roach's music so here is a like so you can listen to a few bits of his amazing work.
https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/
Enjoy!
PS
My regime is three weeks with the first day being the day of the infusion. I begin taking chemo pills that evening and continue taking them two times a day for the next two weeks. On the last day, I only take them in the morning. Today is that day. So I will have a full week of no chemo pills! I am curious to see if I feel any different. The last couple of days I have had a lot of discomfort in my abdomen. Some bloating, and I have had trouble sleeping. Today I will also begin taking a pill that should help with sleep. I had two medical appointments this past week and have several new meds. It is time to make a chart to attach to the medicine cabinet door. I can't keep up!
My first appointment was with Mateo Siefert, my nurse practitioner. Have I mentioned how great I think he is? He is my "team leader" and I will be meeting with him monthly. He will be taking care of things like pain management and help sleeping etc. He will also be keeping tabs on how Hubby and I are doing over all. He prescribed the meds to help me sleep that I mentioned above. He also prescribed a potent pain med. Hubby had to do training on what to do if I accidentally OD. I have to take pee tests each month as well. I am a druggie!
My second appointment was with a Rheumatologist. That was very informative! My oncologist was concerned about my Lupus like symptoms and choose not to give me one of my chemo drugs until a Rheumatologist verified exactly was my diagnosis is. Although I have to wait on results of blood tests, the good news is that I likely do no have Lupus. I have extremely sensitive skin, which accounts for a lot of the rashes etc. I also have Thoracic Outlet Obstruction Syndrome. I have known this for a long time. I also have Raynaud's Syndrome. Again, I have known this for most of my life. What I didn't know is that the first syndrome basically causes the second, which makes perfect sense. So I likely don't have a systemic issue, just a poorly wired issue! My new doctor, Scott Sterner, is great and took lots of time to investigate my strangeness. He asked if I noticed a difference in blood pressure readings from right arm to left arm. I realized when he said that, indeed, I do seem to have lower readings on my left arm. Next time I have my blood pressure taken by a nurse, I am going to ask if both arms can be done at the same time. When I did my blood draw, I had the same issue I usually have: the blood begins to trickle into the tube then slows way down or even stops. I realized that the way my arm was positioned, my shoulder was kinda of hunched in order to have the crook of my arm face up and elevated. I gently repositioned in my chair and moved my head to the side. The blood immediately flowed into the tube! So the position my arm is generally in for a blood drawl is cutting off the blood flow! I am going to begin focusing on exercises that will help me keep my upper chest open and my shoulders back and down. That might help with the Reynauds episodes. Dr. Sterner also prescribed Viagra to help with blood flow issues. Yikes! He also suggested lithium battery powered gloves for cold days. I will be doing a search on line for those puppies!
And I did make it to both nights of the concert! On the first night, we were waiting outside for the doors to open when the concert organizer, Dwight Loop, stuck his head out and asked for the Sylvesters. He escorted us in and took us up to the small balcony and offered us a choice of comfortable seating. We choose a couch that was against the back wall. A couple of rows of stools were in front of it and I realized we would not have a very good view, but the comfort of the couch would be worth it. Steve Roach came up and sat with me for a bit and told me how honored he was that I would make the effort to come to the concert despite my health issues. What a wonderful man he is. He then said that we wouldn't be able to see so we needed to move the couch, which he proceeded to do! After the second concert, he posed for a picture with me for Hubby. I asked him if he would be coming back to Santa Fe next year (he did a two night concert last year as well, which we attended) and he leaned into me and said, "Yes I am and so are you and that's a promise we are making each other right now!" I couldn't help but tear up. A lot of people aren't aware of Grammy winner Steve Roach's music so here is a like so you can listen to a few bits of his amazing work.
https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/
Enjoy!
PS
Comments
Post a Comment