Man am I wiped today.... I had a wonderful visit from my friend and co-worker Lillian this morning and it was great to see her. It is exciting to observe her and her fiancee Jim work through their wedding event planning.. But I became so fatigued after second visitor, my nurse, left to disconnect my infusion bottle and change my PICC line dressing and flush the caps that I did something I haven't done much and that's sleep in the afternoon...and did I crash. Just couldn't get out of bed. The fatigue went hand in hand with some pretty good gastro issues today...wicked hiccups, heartburn and a little nausea. These side effects seem to hit earlier on in treatment than the first two especially with the hiccups but my doctor has prescribed a PPI (proton pump inhibitor) called Pantoloc and has cut back in half the dosage of steroid to minimize the GI issues especially in light of a new anti-nausea drug that I am trying out EMEND (thanks, Barb!!!). I didn't get the EMEND in advance of starting treatment for which it is designed but it seems to be doing a better job of controlling the nausea than the other anti-emetics I was taking for Treatments 1 and 2.
The good news is that my blood work which they draw just prior to each scheduled chemo treatment came back good for white blood cells, red blood count and hemoglobin...which means I was healthy enough to continue with treatment. And that is good news. The challenge is to stay healthy enough to experience no delays in the treatment. The drugs are designed to kill the rapidly dividing cells from tongue down to the butt...and they don't discriminate...they kill the good ones with the bad...and so the overall effect is to compromise my immunity by decimating white blood cells and can really impact the hemoglobin....and there is relatively little control I can have over this progression other than to eat well, rest lots, exercise when I can, and stay as healthy as I possibly can and approach my overall health in a holistic way - physical, mental, emotional - try to achieve balance with all. As a result I have made some changes to my diet - nothing drastic - just making some different choices whether it be buying organic meats and vegetables where possible and realistic to approaching meals and cooking as cooking whole foods rather than pre-processed or packaged foods. I have done a LOT of reading on food - after all it's a passion of mine. I LOVE TO EAT! I find it overwhelming the "information" out there about food and its relation to cancer whether it be thought of as preventative or even to treat. I talked at length about nutrition and diet and the role within the context of my treatments with the dietician on the Oncology team during my hospital visit on Thursday to start this round of treatment...and was surprised to hear that diet at this stage will not have any significant statistical impact on the factors in the blood that the team is monitoring to determine readiness for continued treatment. What?!!!! You mean that all the kale, asparagus, lemon water, broccoli, strawberries and blueberries, eggs, honey, rapini etc. that I have added to my diet isn't having a dramatic impact on my bloodwork?! Maybe not...but I have learned that it is so important to look at it a different way...eating well and balanced is so important to keeping me overall as healthy as possible to keep me as strong and energetic as possible to keep me active as much as positive...to prevent me from staying completely sedentary....keeping me from spending my days inactive and not eating well. More about food I am sure in future posts...but let me finish with a thought. It has struck me today that one of the more impactful side effects of these treatments and the drugs I am prescribed to help manage the side effects is the effect it is having on my appetite and love for food. Example: Victoria made a wonderful stir fry for dinner tonight....full of healthy vegs and some very tender lean meat...with a sauce made from scratch...and it smelled wonderful!!!!!! And normally the smell of cooking would trigger my appetite response. (Remember...I LOVE to eat!) But with these treatments my sense of taste has been drastically compromised...there seems to no longer be that trigger or connection between mind, nose and gut. I ate this wonderful dinner simply because I needed to eat...not that I was hungry. And I am saddened that my sense of taste is so drastically impacted by the treatments...after all... I love to eat. However, even stranger a patterns seems to have emerged for the first two treatments and I am curious as to whether it will happen this time around. After about a week it's almost like a switch goes off inside that triggers my appetite response. My appetite becomes voracious! In discussions with the Hospital pharmacist and my dietician it is related to the steroids prescribed me...which they have now reduced in dosage to try and combat some of the other GI side effects I have been experiencing...so I will wait and see what happens to my appetite as I go forward this time around.
That's all for now...my tank is now empty. Time to rest and get my energy level up for tomorrow. And bring it on!
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