Inevitably, it’s smooth sailing through chemo for Wednesday and Thursday and then I head in to the oncologist Friday morning to have the infusion pump decoupled from my port-catheter.
Well, smooth sailing may be a bit overly optimistic. Over the last year I have just learned how to make the best I can of it all …
While in the Infusion Suite (no, that name doesn’t make me feel better about why I’m there and what goes on while I’m there) receiving my infusion of Avastin my face turns a ghastly white … I mean all color leaves my face and I look coffin ready. Then for Thursday and Friday … my color returns with a passion and I’m red faced.
Learning the best way to sleep with the infusion pump on Wednesday and Thursday nights took me eight months … but now that is a piece of cake. Of course for the first 24 hours or so after they remove my infusion pump after chemo, I keep thinking it is still hooked up and make movement allowances for the 4 feet of tubing and the infusion pump bag …
And I’ve learned to be proactive in the battle against nausea and constipation (hey, I believe in being honest … brutally so at times) by taking both Zofran (for nausea) and store brand Senekot-S (for constipation) twice daily during chemo … and I avoid overeating and make sure I drink lots of liquids (apparently that’s the #1 problem people who struggle with chemo have … not getting enough fluids.)
Which brings me back to the post-chemo crash … usually sometimes between 6 and 7pm Friday I am overwhelmed by this need to take a nap … keeping my eyes open is not an option … neither is sitting up … my body is shutting down … crashing … and I need to lay down.
I tell my wife, “Sheryl, I’m going to take a little nap.” and she knowingly shakes her head in acknowledgment realizing she now has free reign on the TV remote for the rest of the evening … she won’t see me till morning. And I usually don’t get up from my little ‘nap’ until 8 or 9am Saturday morning.
Unfortunately this week that little post chemo crash occurred in the midst of chemo on Thursday night and my little nap lasted almost 15 hours … so now it’s 3:30am Saturday morning, I can’t sleep and I’m blogging.
Not complaining Lord … so thankful to be alive and winning the battle!
Bernie
I wondered why you were posting so early this morning! I, too, was awake when you commented on my blog “Let Us Reason Together” … Perhaps God was dealing with both of us in our on special need. May God bless you, Bernie, as He leads you through this journey and you share how He is unquestionably faithful to you. Jim D.
Perhaps He was Jim … perhaps he was. I am not typically up at that time of the morning … it is indeed interesting that He would have us both up at that early hour both reading and writing as God matures us and builds our faith IN Christ Jesus. It is indeed a blessing to know you as a brother in the Lord Jim!
May you be overwhelmingly blessed by God’s unconditional love today and sense His loving presence constantly!
Bernie
Bernie, before I got on Xeloda chemo made me very sick. Every kind I tried. Some things the oncologist did that helped: I took a steroid pill for the first 3 days after chemo day. This was supposed to help. Don’t know if it did. The best thing was Emend. As a Rx pill it was kind of an expensive copay on my insurance, but then they started adding it to my “chemist cocktail” and it helped tremendously. I still used Zofran or Phenergan at home, but only because I have such a “weak” stomach and it still wasn’t as bad. I liked Emend so much that when the drugstore said my insurance wouldn’t approve another dose I cried and immediately sent out a prayer request text message. (The problem was resolved the next day. I love it when the Lord moves quickly.)
I’m sorry you have to deal with this on topic everything else. Nausea has beenthe worst thing for me.
I enjoy tearing your posts because your situation is closest to mine of anybody I “know”.
Thanks so much Glenda for sharing your cancer experience with me … I do indeed find comfort in the shared journey and in my writing I hope to offer that same comfort and hope to others who find themselves in the same journey we are traveling and enduring. Also thanks for offering some alternatives to Zofran – it is in my pre-med cocktail as well and so far it is done the trick in keeping the nausea at bay the vast majority of the time. I love the testimony in your comment … the Lord does indeed care about even the smallest needs we have.
May you be blessed and find joy and peace in this cancer journey Glenda!
Bernie