The Second AC

Monday, December19: Boy, I can't believe the last three weeks have flown by! I will have my third treatment tomorrow and I haven't even updated from the last one! I guess it went by so fast because I haven't been feeling very good. I had my last chemo on Wed. Nov. 30th. I did not have the atavan (the stuff that put me to sleep) this time because I wanted to try and go to Allison's dance show at school. Well, I think I like the atavan. I didn't feel good the rest of the day and couldn't go to her show anyway. I would rather sleep through the day than to feel yucky. I was not nauseous, just yucky feeling. I felt better on Thursday and went to see Allison on that day. ( She was awsome up on stage) I started feeling bad on Friday again, just like last time. I stayed home. I never got sick, just a yucky feeling all over my body. I also had a shot of neulasta in my arm. My arm got hard at the site of the injection. Then Saturday, I felt awful. I took a lortab thinking that would make my body feel better. I didn't realize that my regular doctor increased the milligrams from 5 mg to 7.5mg. I think I over medicated and I was so nauseous. The neulasta also causes pain in your bones. I felt it in my spine and lower back on Friday and Saturday. It was not as bad as what I was expecting. I guess I always think the worst and then it turns out not to be too bad. Mom and Larry were coming in that night and I thought for sure I would feel terrible. But, about when it was time for the lortab to start wearing off I started feeling better and was able to eat, which helped out a lot. By the time mom and Larry got here in the evening I was feeling almost normal. But than came Sunday morning. I started coughing and coughed all day every few minutes. It was a dry cough that really bothered my throat. I called the oncologists office in the afternoon and the doctor on call told me to try robitussin. I slept well through the night but it really didn't help my cough too much. By the end of Monday my chest and throat hurt from coughing so I called the oncologist and they told me to come in Tuesday morning to see the doctor and to check my labs. They called in an antibiotic for me to go ahead and start. Dr. Allison is at another office on Tuesdays so I saw her nurse practitioner. She said my labs were not too bad. My white blood cell count was 2.9. I did not have a fever and my chest sounded fine. She gave me some robitussin with codeine to help me sleep because I didn't sleep the night before. (That didn't help that much either.) I got the same advice as the last time: no fresh fruits or vegies, no buffets, stay way from sick people. I was sick the whole time mom and Larry were here. I lost my voice and my throat was just horribly raw. The mouth sores on top of a sore throat were so painful. I finally started to feel a little better on Friday. Which I was glad because I was going to call the doctor back if I didn't. I just couldn't go all weekend with the way I was feeling. We all went to Jason s football game on Saturday and I guess that messed me up again because I started feeling really bad. You know what a big mouth I have and I think I probably yelled, accidentally, a few times during the game. ( they won their game, making it an undefeated season. They played in the championship game winning 48-0) That made my throat flare up again where I couldn't hardly swallow. I spent all day Sunday hardly speaking again because my throat was so sore. Mom and Larry left early Monday morning and we really didn't get to do anything all week because of my cold. Mom cooked almost every night. I felt better on Sunday night and we did head out to Claimjumper for dinner. (Love their prime rib!! Although, I think mine was undercooked that night. Allison ate some of mine and we both had upset stomachs the next day and had to take imodium AD) I kept my sore throat and congestion for the rest of the week. My throat finally started feeling better Saturday, two weeks after it started. The white blood cells bottom out on day 10 after chemo. After a few days they start to rise on the own so I think that that finally gave me enough to fight whatever I had going on. Just in time for another round of chemo!