A Conversation with a Friend

I wrote a blog a few days ago about how my 3rd cycle of treatment was going. It was pretty long and in great detail and then I lost it.  So I will start this blog talking about what me and my best friend of over 13 years talked about, that dealt with my breast cancer and family. She called me to see how I was doing.  I was on day 6 of chemo cycle 3 and it was kicking my but a little bit more.  I told her that this treatment is harder than the others.  On day one I was good until I took my first nap and had to get up.  When I rise up and sit on the edge of the bed my heart starts to palliate and it takes a minute to focus.  As I stand up my body feels so heavy and I need to hold the dresser to walk towards the bathroom.  I feel like the gravitational pull is not my friend.  I start to smell things around me that I wish I didn't. She wanted to know everything that I was going through.  I told her that my eye lids feel as through tiny men wear hanging from them and they were very hard to stay open.  Even my face felt weighed down.  My finger nail beds were getting darker.  The worst is the energy.  I have to energy and want to just sleep.

I started to tell her about the next set of cycle. The first four was every two weeks of Cyclophosphamide and Doxorubicin hydrochloride.  The next set is cycle 5-8, which consisted of Paclitaxel. This treatment is suppose to be given every 7 days (3 weeks on and 1 week off) for the next 4 months.  The number one thing to be concerned about is infection. This new drug will lower my white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. I did explain that every time I go to the infusion center they check for a multiple of items such as the following: WBC, RBC, hemoglobin, neutrophils, lymphocytes, platelets, BUN, sodium, potassium, and Glom filt rate.

We talked about if I'am just lying around and having people wait on me.  I replied by telling her not at all.  The first few days are really rough and yes I need people to either check on me and to be there to give me fluids.  If it was left to me I would just sleep for the first few days and wake up to only pee.  But my family at home is very supportive.  They check on me every couple of hours and make sure I get lots of fluids.  I don't want to eat because of the whole no taste bud, tongue turning black, making me feel nausea after every meal.

I will try to write more but I can tell that mentally I'am moving slower.  I used to multitask mentally and have things planned out 5 steps ahead of anybody else, but lately I just take my time.