Fiddling with little things

The chemo and Herceptin last week went fine, however Friday night I got a bad pain in my left arm again - the side my port is on. The doctor had said that if it happened again I should get them to stop the chemo injection right away because the chemo could be getting out of the artery. But I don't remember him saying what to do if it happened 6 hours later! Two advil and an early bedtime seemed to be the answer as most of the pain was gone by the next morning.

With the new chemo I'm doing (instead of M-M-N chemo, I just get the N part of the drug cocktail now) I get injections every week. So today I was back in the doctor's office for the pre-chemo visit. He decided to do a dye check to make sure the port was still in the right artery. The answer came back "sort of". The exact end of the port is in a little branch off the main artery. When the drug goes it the port, it has to work out of this little sidetrack area to get to the rest of my body. The good news is that there's no leak so we're good to go for my regular chemo tomorrow. As for moving the port to where it is suppose to be, they'll leave that discussion for later. My arm pain 6 hours later? That's still unexplained.

So that is how I spent 5 hours on Thursday. And I wonder why I never get anything done on my to-do list.

So tomorrow its another bag of intravenous stuff that has a name so long they just call it N.

Hopefully all goes well.

Tests and test results

Hello. This morning was a busy morning. I had my Muga scan at 8 am this morning. 4 needle pokes and 1 1/2 hours later I was finished. The Muga scan monitors how well my heart is pumping. Damage can be done by Herceptin.

Then it was off to the lab for yet another needle poke. That would be number 5 in the same arm for those who are counting. I have an enormous bruise now.

I checked in to see my doctor and was informed that I had to go for another chest Xray. This was a surprise. So off to Xray we went (my friend Karen came with me today).

Then back to the doctor. And this is what we learned;

- the CT results show that my liver lesions are shrinking. That is really good news and it means the chemo is working.
- there are no lymphnodes in the axilla or clavical area that look suspicious
- there is no change in the Xray taken 3 weeks ago versus the one taken today. There is nothing new but there is still shadowing in the upper side of my left lung. He doesn't think it is pneumonia because I don't have any symptons. He thinks it may be from the chemo that I had 6 weeks ago. So we are changing my chemo regimen. I will only have the "N" of the "MMN" chemo that I have had so far. I will have it every week for 3 weeks and then have a week off. I will continue with the Herceptin as well. I will have 2 cycles and then have another CT the beginning of December to see if the "N" continues to shrink the lesions.

So that is good news. Tomorrow I start the new regimen of "N" and Herceptin.

That's everything off the top of my head. If I remember anything else I will add another post.

Thanks for everyone's concern about these test results. Good thoughts gave us good results.

Love Carolin

Waiting for results

Hi there!! Well the fatigue has started to go away. I can make it through the day without a nap. I do however go to bed early. I am back to going to the gym doing my weight classes. The nausea continues to bother me and eatting is a problem. I am starting to get use to drinking those meal supplement drinks.

The CT scan on Friday went fine. They were behind by about an hour which made the afternoon a bit long. I should hear some results this week.

We had a nice Thanksgiving but no turkey or ham for this girl. I was able to eat cabbage rolls and that made up for anything else that I couldn't have. This was the first Thanksgiving for me with no pumpkin pie. I guess I will have to make one when I am feeling better. And hopefully that will be soon.

Not much else to report.

I'll write again when I get my test results.

Love Carolin

Fatigue

I have found out what it feels like to have fatigue. I am sleeping 11 hours at night and waking up tired. The other day I only had enough energy to get Jessica off to school and then I was back in bed asleep for 3 hours. Got about 2 chores done and then slept again until Jessica got off the bus. It is very depressing for someone who usually has a day full of energy and gets a lot of things done in a day. I've decided that even though I don't like the taste of coffee right now, it may keep me awake until lunch time. I truly have to say that in the past I haven't been that compassionate to people who say they are fatigued. For that I am sorry, now that I know how it feels and how little you can do when it is hard to keep your eyes open. I have started taking vitamins pills again to see if that may help. I was cautioned about taking too may vitamins while my liver is being treated. Too may vitamins pills can be hard for the liver to process.

It is now 9:30 am and I'm not back in bed!!! I will go walk the dog and see if I can make it until after lunch before I lay down for a rest.

Tomorrow is my CT scan in the afternoon. I don't expect any results until the middle of next week. Then we should have answers about my lungs and whether the chemo for my liver is working or not.

Keep you posted as I have new information.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Love Carolin