The Fourth AC and Lab Results

Wednesday, January 11: This is my last AC treatment!!!! Robert went with me this time because we had questions for the doctor for the next course of treatment. I will begin taxol and herceptin on Feb. 1. Sometimes they start treatment 2 weeks after the AC but because my white blood cells drop low they are going to wait 3 weeks for me. I did fairly well again. I felt pretty good for the next 2 days after treatment and I thought that maybe I would not have any reaction at all...but sadly that is not the case. It hit me on saturday and sunday. My stomach felt awful and I had no appetite. Everything tasted terrible and nothing sounded good to eat. When I woke up on monday, I was so weak. I had no energy and getting up the stairs was difficult. I thought maybe my red blood cells (a drop in those causes anemia and fatigue) dropped significantly. I also knew that I had not eaten very well in the past few days. So I ate better and took my vitamin and I felt much better my the end of the day. I have labs drawn on the 20th so I will be able to tell about the red blood cells then. I seemed to have taken a longer time than normal to regain my appetite this time. In the times past, I really had a lack of appetite but I could always find something to eat. This time I just didn't want to eat at all. It probably took a full 2 weeks before I wanted any food. And nothing tastes right either. That is still bothering me a little bit now. I did get mouth sores really bad this time. In the first 3 treatments I put ice chips in my mouth as they were injecting the adriamycin. I think one time I got 1 or 2 mouth sores but they were not bad. I was talking to Robert when the nurse, who was new and did not say anything about the ice chips, started injecting the adriamycin. About half way through I realized that I had forgotten and put ice in, but it was too late. I got horrible mouth sores, about 8 down the left side of my tongue. That kept me from eating too. The pain was horrible anytime my tongue hit my teeth. I am glad that is over with!!
Friday, January 20: Last night was horrible. I was up in pain all night. I didn't sleep a wink. I had terrible chest pain and pain right below my sternum. I almost went to the hospital because the pain was so bad. I also did not like that I had so much pain in the middle of my chest. I knew that I had an appointment at the oncologists for labs so I just held on until then. They drew blood for labs and I told them about my night. They said that I was constipated! I have never been constipated (that is a side effect of chemo) before, but WOW! how painful!
they gave me some prescription meds for it and I now eat a little bit of bran cereal in the morning to help. I don't EVER want to feel like that again. That was really worse than how I felt after chemo. My labs were great though. My white and red blood cells were only a little below normal and the doctor was happy about that. So, I start 12 weeks of taxol beginning Feb 1. I will get herceptin at the same time for those 12 weeks. After the 12 weeks are over, I will continue the herceptin once every 3 weeks for 9 more months. I get the herceptin for a total of a year. I have a heart echo on Jan 26th to see if there was any damage from the chemo. The only major side effect from herceptin is heart damage so I will be given a heart echo every 3 months. If they see any damage then I will stop the herceptin and the doctor said the heart will repair itself from the damage. Well, I hope so!! JoAnna, my sister-in-law, got us a room for the weekend of the 27th to go to Brian Head, Utah. I am so excited to be getting away. This is a great way to mark the end of the AC chemo. The kids are going snowboarding. Robert wants to learn to ski again, but he decided not to this time. I am not going to, of course, but I would like to ski or snowboard again as well. I used to ski a lot as a teenager. I might try to take up snowboarding. It looks like so much fun. I love going places!!