Chemo Going Okay, Roommate Not So Good
I received my first dose of Methotrexate around 6pm Sunday evening. I was given some pre-meds as part of the treatment to eliminate any nausea. So far so good, no nausea or any other side effects that I have noticed. Due to the high levels of fluids that they have been giving me, I have managed to be able to get lasix to try and flush them out of my system. It has been helping quite a bit and I've been spending most of my time in the bathroom. I haven't lost any of the water weight I gained the first few hours I was here, but I haven't gained any new weight either. Because I'm flushing out fluids like crazy, all my electrolytes have been depleted and now I have to get magnesium, potassium, and calcium via IV. My hemoglobin has also continued to drop, which I'm starting to get very worried about. I mentioned it to the nurse practitioner that is monitoring me this morning and she didn't seem to be concerned and said that the fluids could be affecting it (diluting my blood). I'm not sure I'm convinced that this is the case since it started dropping prior to me receiving any fluids.
As planned, I started the Leucavorin that goes along with this chemo 24 hrs after. I'm receiving a dose via IV every six hours. The goal is to get me to a level of 0.05 in my system. That will allow me to be discharged and continue on an oral dose at home. Most people start at a level of around 5.0 and it usually takes about 48 hours to get to the 0.05 level. If all goes well, I may be discharged on Wednesday afternoon/evening.
The nurse practitioner that is monitoring me is a familiar face to me. She was one of my NP's during my 2nd transplant. She's now working in oncology rather than BMT. She had mentioned to me this morning that Dr. Lowsky, my BMT doctor, was pretty involved in the decision of this treatment. She also mentioned that I had been in his thoughts and that he may even have some options for me in the future. He wants me to undergo some blood tests to see what percentage of donor cells are in my body. I don't want to get my hopes up, but there might be some thought of using my donor's frozen cells sometime in the future. I think it all depends on how I respond to this chemo and getting my disease back into control again.
She also introduced me to a young girl who has Hodgkin’s disease and is the room next to me. She will be undergoing an autologous BMT in the near future and I have been giving her some advice and telling her about my experience. As it turns out, we have quite a bit in common and have been enjoying each other’s company. It’s too bad we weren’t put in the same room together.
The biggest challenge with this admission has been my roommate situation. The lady that I'm sharing a room with is newly diagnosed and is in a lot of pain. They don't know what type of cancer she has yet, but apparently it's in the liver, lungs, and bones. She's on morphine 24/7 and she spends most of the night whining/complaining and waking me up to call the nurse because she's not able to. She also isn't able to get up to use the restroom, so she either goes in bed or if I'm lucky enough gets the nurse in on time to use a bedpan. The whole thing has made me a nervous wreck so I'm now sitting outside in the lobby (at 4:45am) trying to distract myself. Moving to another room doesn't look promising since the unit is 100% full. The worst part is I'm not really able to catch up on sleep during the day because I have so much work to do. Today I worked from about 7am - midnight with a few breaks in between.
As planned, I started the Leucavorin that goes along with this chemo 24 hrs after. I'm receiving a dose via IV every six hours. The goal is to get me to a level of 0.05 in my system. That will allow me to be discharged and continue on an oral dose at home. Most people start at a level of around 5.0 and it usually takes about 48 hours to get to the 0.05 level. If all goes well, I may be discharged on Wednesday afternoon/evening.
The nurse practitioner that is monitoring me is a familiar face to me. She was one of my NP's during my 2nd transplant. She's now working in oncology rather than BMT. She had mentioned to me this morning that Dr. Lowsky, my BMT doctor, was pretty involved in the decision of this treatment. She also mentioned that I had been in his thoughts and that he may even have some options for me in the future. He wants me to undergo some blood tests to see what percentage of donor cells are in my body. I don't want to get my hopes up, but there might be some thought of using my donor's frozen cells sometime in the future. I think it all depends on how I respond to this chemo and getting my disease back into control again.
She also introduced me to a young girl who has Hodgkin’s disease and is the room next to me. She will be undergoing an autologous BMT in the near future and I have been giving her some advice and telling her about my experience. As it turns out, we have quite a bit in common and have been enjoying each other’s company. It’s too bad we weren’t put in the same room together.
The biggest challenge with this admission has been my roommate situation. The lady that I'm sharing a room with is newly diagnosed and is in a lot of pain. They don't know what type of cancer she has yet, but apparently it's in the liver, lungs, and bones. She's on morphine 24/7 and she spends most of the night whining/complaining and waking me up to call the nurse because she's not able to. She also isn't able to get up to use the restroom, so she either goes in bed or if I'm lucky enough gets the nurse in on time to use a bedpan. The whole thing has made me a nervous wreck so I'm now sitting outside in the lobby (at 4:45am) trying to distract myself. Moving to another room doesn't look promising since the unit is 100% full. The worst part is I'm not really able to catch up on sleep during the day because I have so much work to do. Today I worked from about 7am - midnight with a few breaks in between.
posted by Erika @ 4:28 AM
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