Day 113 - Neuropathy

It's Day 113 of my plight with breast cancer. I am so looking forward to this Thursday. It will be Round 8 of 8! I'm very excited. And more excited because Dr. Luoh and I found a great balance of meds to make sure I don't get sick!

So it's about a week and a half since my treatment. My fingers and toes are still feeling the neuropathy side effects. I am hoping they go away in time. I am not so sure. :(

Here's a definition of neuorpathy:

Mononeuropathy is damage to a single nerve or nerve group, which results in loss of movement, sensation, or other function of that nerve.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors

Mononeuropathy is a type of damage to nerves outside the brain and spinal cord (peripheral neuropathy).
Mononeuropathy is most often caused by injury, although body-wide (systemic) disorders may cause isolated nerve damage.
Long-term pressure on a nerve due to swelling or injury can result in mononeuropathy. The covering of the nerve (myelin sheath) or part of the nerve cell (the axon) may be damaged. This damage slows or prevents signals from traveling through the damaged nerves.

It goes between feeling like my fingers tips and toes are tingly to numbness to feeling like a car door slammed on them. It's really interesting. Can't really put your finger on the way it feels. Nevertheless, it's more annoying than anything. Sometimes it can feel like after you get something done on your mouth at the dentist like a cavity filled.... you know that your lips are still there, but can't really feel them.

But other than the neuropathy, that's all I've been dealing with the last week. I still can't believe that I am nearly there with the chemo-sucky. I am rejoicing and want to thank each one of you for supporting me through this. Without my cheering squad, I don't think I could have remained so positive.

Day 95 - I'm Normal!

Wow... I am normal. Seems like an oxymoran at this point in time. But that is what the ultrasound technician said.

I went in for my blood work and my u/s this morning. It was nice going to a smaller hospital. Everyone was on time. I got there shortly after 8a. Since I was early for the u/s appointment, I went and had my bloodwork done. I only had to walk a short distance from the check in desk to the outpatient lab. The technicians were a bit scary... english wasn't their first language. But the lab worker got my vein on the first try and it was done within minutes. After that, it took a few minutes to wait to check in for the u/s. I barely had time to get one text off to Brad to tell him that I was done with the bloodwork before I got called back. Since I was just at Mt. Hood about two weeks ago, they had me in the system. That was awesome. After checking in, it was a quick wait in a hallway. I think I waited about 7 minutes... just enough time to fire off two text messages! LOL. Thanks Annie! Then it was back in the u/s room. The sonographer was awesome. We just talked through the whole thing. She went to school in Oklahoma but moved out to the NW because she went through an F5 tornado and said she wasn't having anymore of that (scary, Brooke!). She's been in Oregon for many years now. We also talked about why we though breast cancer stats were so much higher. She didn't know. I just wanted her opinion. And whether she wanted it or not, I gave her mine. I said I like to think that we are more in tune with our bodies and we tend to catch the symptoms/signs earlier. She said she liked that response and was going to use it. Um, lemme see, I found out that the hospital complex is going to open up a new office facility that will specialize in women's breast health... mammography, biopsies and the like. She used to work at Mt. Hood MC, then went to another hospital, only to return a few months ago because she was launching this new office. She specializes in the breast. In fact, she was shocked that I was a breast cancer patient. She thought that I just had a lumpectomy because she thought my wig was my real hair. She said that I looked great for someone going through chemo and she was thrown off because I still have my eyebrows and eye lashes! Ha! I kept some hair! hahahaha!

So the u/s was only about 25 minutes in length. She took lots of pictures of my liver. She took pictures of my kidneys, pancreas, gallbladder and then last she looked at my spleen. She said that she's not supposed to tell me about what she's seeing... meaning making any sort of diagnosis, but she said that my liver looked fine and then when she got to my spleen, she said that it was a normal size. So I'm normal. :) That's a relief. So my aches and pains are just a side effect of chemo-sucky and neulasta I am assuming. She said, of course, I didn't hear it from her. But I am glad she at least told me that my spleen looked normal. Then it was off to work.

I got home just in time today to get a call from Angie, Dr. Luoh's nurse. She said that my spleen looked normal (which I already knew, but said nothing) and that my labs came back normal. She said my white blood count was in the normal range and that I am a little anemic which is also normal for a chemo-sucky patient. I asked her if there's anything I can do for that. She said that I could change my diet... eat more iron rich foods, but she doubts that it will really help. If it gets too low it would mean a blood transfusion. But it's not near that point. It just means that I am more tired. So I like my afternoon naps.

Dr. L did say I could go in for more testing... doing a doppler test to check for blood clots. But after discussing with Angie, we decided no. I don't have the symptoms of a blood clot. I don't have swollen extremities, the pain isn't increasing, no fever, etc. But we did agree if I have any of these symptoms I would call right away or get to an ER ASAP as if the blood clot were to move it could cause a stroke. But she said that blood clots are not typical. So the diagnosis is to continue to drink lots of fluids and if the pain is bad (and no fever) I can take tylenol or ibuprofen. Fun times.

After her call, I took a much needed nap. Yea!

Other than that, everything is good. Feeling good. The numbness/tingling is still there. I am hoping it will go away. I don't like the feeling. It's an awkward feeling. Think if it continues Dr. L will get me out of my last two chemo-sucky treatments??? Hahaha!

Day 94 - How much fun can a girl have?

So last week my fun consisted of the fact that I may have to give myself injections for a week. Well, that has come and gone. Now I have to go in for an ultrasound for my spleen!

Last night my back was starting to hurt and ache. This is on my left side around my rib cage. This is where my spleen sits. Apparently the spleen is something that deals with white blood cells and the making of platelets and such. You can google search it. In anycase, part of the side effects of either the chemo-sucky or the Neulasta, an enlarged spleen could be a side effect. So it starts with an achiness or something to that fact. The ache didn't go away this morning so at 7:55a I called Dr. Luoh. I went home at lunch to await his call. I didn't get a call until 11a! Good thing it wasn't an emergency. Ha! So I gave the symptoms to his nurse, Angie and she said she'd talk to Dr. L and call me back. I finally got a call back around 2p. She said that Dr. L wants me to get an ultrasound of the spleen and then a blood test. She said that since the last time I went in and got blood work done, my white blood counts were really high. So who knows what this will mean.

So tomorrow I go to Legacy Mt. Hood Medical Center for my ultrasound. The appointment is scheduled for 815a. Either I can go get my blood drawn before or after the u/s. They wanted me to do it at OHSU, but the earliest they could get me in is Friday and Dr. L didn't want to wait that long. Uh, duh! Tonight my last meal will be at midnight, as I cannot eat anything eight hours before my ultrasound. I can drink which is a life saver. I'm supposed to be drinking lots and lots. I can take tylenol or ibuprofen for the pain. I did take some but that was more for the leg aches that shoot through me every so often.

I did talk to Angie about my neuropathy. She told me to keep track of it and to tell the doctor if it gets worse. The toes are tingly. The finger tips are also tingly. She told me to use hot mitts for hot things and to wear slippers around the house. Check and check. Grrr... this is so annoying. I hate chemo-sucky. I hate cancer even more. Stupid.

On a funny note, I had just come home from picking up the girls at daycare. The phone rang as I brought Amelia inside the house. She's very fond right now of answering the phone. She wanted to answer the phone, but I got to it first because I had a feeling it was the doctor's office wanting to schedule the u/s. It was Angie on the phone. Well, I couldn't have a conversation with her without Amelia saying she wanted to say hello. I asked Angie if she could say hello. She said absolutely. Angie understands because she has a two and five year old. So Amelia said hi and she was good.

We had a lovely day - the girls and I. We watched Angelina Ballerina (it was an ice skating episode) on TV and then ice skated around the kitchen. We did leaps and twirls. Amelia baked for me. Elaina ate ice cream. So it was a good day except for the dumb achy pain on my left side.

Day 93

Oops, I meant to post this yesterday.

Feeling better today. My fingers and toes are tingly still. Every so often I get a fit of nausea, but I think it had to do with being hungry. My legs are sore... and I get sharp pains every so often coursing through them.

Day 92

I got sick today. I was taking all my meds, but I still managed to throw up. I threw up only once. But I managed to keep water and fluids down. My fingers are tingly and so are my toes. I'm tired, so I will check in tomorrow.

Day 82 - Chemo-sucky

So I guess you could say that yesterday was a very low low low point in my treatment. I will admit i was in tears. The chemo just got to me. I hate it. I will shout it - I hate chemotherapy. Maybe I should call it chemo-sucky because it is definitely NOT theraputic at all.

After this past weekend, I just don't ever want to go back. I don't like the feeling of taxol. First it made me so nauseous that it sent me to the hospital. Then it gave me so much aches and pain that it felt unbearable. And lastly I couldn't kick the feeling of just general icky-ness. So yesterday I just broke down and said I don't want anymore. I don't want to go through anymore of this chemo-sucky. I wanted to end it at 5 treatments. I figure I will still live. I did my research and some doctors say that after 5 treatments... it only lessens your chance of cancer/recurrence by 2-3%. But today I am feeling better. I am feeling - not a million bucks - but feeling better. Enough to understand that I need to do another treatment of taxol. I will take the treatments one at a time. Yesterday I suffered just from anxiety of knowing I have three more to go. But then I took a half an ativan and I felt so much better. I put it all behind me for the time being. This morning when I woke up I felt good.

So... here are the side effects of taxol that I have experienced. Nausea, vomiting, extreme aches and pains (feels like growing pains which are dull and achy and then toss in excrutiating sharp pains) and tingly feet. Then I get the side effects of the anti-nausea meds... constipation. Ugh! So I figure this is how I am going to tackle the next round of chemo-sucky. Since I didn't start to feel gross until Saturday late morning, when I wake up on Saturday the first thing I will do is pop a zofran in my mouth. That will last for 12 hours or so. Then maybe later in the morning depending on how I feel, I may take a compazine. After that I can pop an ativan. In any case, I am going to medicate the crap out of my body and make sure I don't get sick. I will also sip sip sip water or apple juice, or whatever I feel like drinking. I don't want to get nauseated and vomit. Then I don't want to get dehydrated. Like I posted in another post, it's a vicious cycle and I don't want to get caught up in it. In addition, I will ask Dr. L if I should get hydration on Friday. Maybe get hydration when I get my Neulasta shot. As for the pain... I am going to be popping ibuprofen pills... 600 mg if that's okay with Dr. L. I have a plan. I don't want to go back to what I was feeling before. That just sucked. I guess I let it get too far because I wanted to believe that I was going to be one of those people who wasn't going to get sick from the taxol. Hahahahaha!

As for the tingling... or neuropathy. That is something that I will have to deal with. It is something that is not that bad compared to everything else... but when compiled with all the other side effects... it just sucked. So today the aches and pains are gone and I am just dealing with a little bit of tingling. This I can deal with. Oh yes, here's another thing... I can't concentrate. I feel like a toddler with the attention span of 3 minutes. But that happened on Tuesday and Wednesday. Today I felt like an adult with a longer attention span of 5 (cuz I was at work and my attention is constantly being redirected).

But I am feeling good today. Thanks for your support.

Day 76 & 77 - Still isn't easy

I thought this was going to be the easier of the chemos. Hahahaha!

It's Saturday or Day 77 and I am sitting in bed and feeling achy all over. I feel like I have the flu without the nasty symptoms except for extreme body aches. And then this afternoon, what happens??? I'm puking in the toilet again. So much for the nausea and vomiting going away. I am so done with this. Also my taste is gone. Nothing tastes like it should. I don't have the "metallic" taste, it's just nothing has any taste or seasoning. So as for the nausea and vomiting, I am back taking compazine. Hopefully that will keep everything down. I do have to say that the nausea and vomiting is nothing like the previous two rounds. I just wish it hadn't come around at all.

Taxol is taxing on the body. While I don't have the "tingling" feeling, my finger tips are achy. My scalp aches. Basically everything aches. This does not bode well because tomorrow is when my body really aches from the neulasta shot. So I guess we will see.

Yesterday I was feeling pretty good. I was up and around. I was just tired from the day before that's activities, but I managed through it pretty well. I'm just not looking forward to what tomorrow brings. More nausea? More aches and pains? At least I only have three more rounds of this crap and then I am done, done, DONE!