Got Chemo
I finally got my dose of Velban today. I was scheduled to receive it on Friday, but when I went in there was a huge uproar from the pharmacy about my counts being too low. My NP and doctor had told me that my counts from last time were good enough to get treatment, but for some reason when I showed up the pharmacy disagreed. Since my NP and doctor were already gone for the day (it was after 6pm), they couldn't get in contact with them and the doctor "on-call" wouldn't sign off on the orders. I was really hoping to get my treatment on Friday so I would have the weekend to recover from any side effects.
Today I had my labs drawn again and my platelets were slightly higher so my doctor gave me the go ahead. I got my treatment and so far I'm feeling okay. I hope the night remains the same so I can go to work tomorrow.
I discussed a lot of things with my doctor when I saw her today since this is the first time I had seen her since she told me the results of my lung biopsy and since I had my PET/CT done. We went over the PET/CT results in detail. She told me exactly what my NP had to me over the phone, so I was glad to not hear any new surprises. She said that the decision to put me back on Velban was a very complicated one and that it was discussed by many of the Lymphoma specializing oncologists at Stanford, including the highly acclaimed expert, Dr. Rosenberg. They decided to do chemo over radiating the nodule just to cover anything else that might be hiding around that may not be big enough to show up on the PET/CT. I was also put back on prednisone (my favorite) to help with the symptoms (fevers, night sweats, bone pain, etc.). Even though the dose is very small, the thought of being on prednisone again is quite dissapointing.
Another factor we discussed is the removal of my Hickman. I was actually the one who brought it up this time. I have started to see a trend in getting very high fevers/chills whenever my Hickman is accessed, so I'm starting to agree with the fact that it may be infected even though all the cultures have shown otherwise (it's possible to have an infection with negative cultures). Of course my NP and doctor agreed that this was the best thing to do (they've been practically begging me for a year). I will be scheduling an appointment with the surgeon that inserted it both times (for my 1st & 2nd transplants) to talk about removing it and other options. My hope is to have another Hickman put in, but I may possibly consider a port also. I will most likely have to have the Hickman I have now removed first, wait a couple of weeks for the infection to clear out of my system, and then have the next thing put in. That will mean two surgeries, which I definitely won't be looking forward to. I definitely need to have some type of catheter inserted, because this chemo cannot be given through a peripheral IV. Once or twice is okay, but they won't do it more than that (due to the risk of killing the surrounding tissue).
My next visit to Stanford will be in two weeks to get my next round of treatment. Meanwhile I'll be doing Neupogen shots for the next 5 days to try and keep my white count from dropping too low. Fortunately my dad comes home tomorrow, just in time for the first one!
Today I had my labs drawn again and my platelets were slightly higher so my doctor gave me the go ahead. I got my treatment and so far I'm feeling okay. I hope the night remains the same so I can go to work tomorrow.
I discussed a lot of things with my doctor when I saw her today since this is the first time I had seen her since she told me the results of my lung biopsy and since I had my PET/CT done. We went over the PET/CT results in detail. She told me exactly what my NP had to me over the phone, so I was glad to not hear any new surprises. She said that the decision to put me back on Velban was a very complicated one and that it was discussed by many of the Lymphoma specializing oncologists at Stanford, including the highly acclaimed expert, Dr. Rosenberg. They decided to do chemo over radiating the nodule just to cover anything else that might be hiding around that may not be big enough to show up on the PET/CT. I was also put back on prednisone (my favorite) to help with the symptoms (fevers, night sweats, bone pain, etc.). Even though the dose is very small, the thought of being on prednisone again is quite dissapointing.
Another factor we discussed is the removal of my Hickman. I was actually the one who brought it up this time. I have started to see a trend in getting very high fevers/chills whenever my Hickman is accessed, so I'm starting to agree with the fact that it may be infected even though all the cultures have shown otherwise (it's possible to have an infection with negative cultures). Of course my NP and doctor agreed that this was the best thing to do (they've been practically begging me for a year). I will be scheduling an appointment with the surgeon that inserted it both times (for my 1st & 2nd transplants) to talk about removing it and other options. My hope is to have another Hickman put in, but I may possibly consider a port also. I will most likely have to have the Hickman I have now removed first, wait a couple of weeks for the infection to clear out of my system, and then have the next thing put in. That will mean two surgeries, which I definitely won't be looking forward to. I definitely need to have some type of catheter inserted, because this chemo cannot be given through a peripheral IV. Once or twice is okay, but they won't do it more than that (due to the risk of killing the surrounding tissue).
My next visit to Stanford will be in two weeks to get my next round of treatment. Meanwhile I'll be doing Neupogen shots for the next 5 days to try and keep my white count from dropping too low. Fortunately my dad comes home tomorrow, just in time for the first one!
posted by Erika @ 8:56 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home