Chemo Round 2 - #4

I think yesterday is the first chemo day that I didn't get a chance to do a post. Rumy's parents were here for the last night and made us dinner. Alden and Mary came and Mieke was here, so the whole family (except Aaron who was working) were here for supper. After dinner we went out to sit by the pier and enjoy the beautiful evening. Alden then treated us to ice cream at The General Store.

Chemo day was LONG, I was there from 9am-5pm. My platelets had gone up nice with the two week break. I had all my prechemo drugs to help fight off the side effects. The first drug went fine, but shortly after they started the Carboplatin, (which was supposed to only take a 1/2 hr.) I started to have a severe Histamine reaction to it. I got as red as a tomato with hive like patches on my chest and arms and hands. I got real hot and felt a heavyness on my chest. They immediately turned it off, got the Dr. they gave my more IV Benadryl, so another chance for a nap, some more IV Decadron (steroid) and soon I was feeling better. They then restarted it very slowly. This drug has a cumulative effect and it is more common to have this reaction after 7 cycles of it, which I am now on my 9th I think. What they will do in 3 weeks is have me start taking some drugs 2 days before chemo to try and ward off the reaction.

I did finally get the results back from the CT-scan that I had done on 6-29.  It shows that I have moderate left pleural effusion with associated left basilar compressive atelectasis. In lay man's terms, it means I have fluid between two layers of my lung and some slight collapse of the lungs which explains why it hurts with I take a deep breath or yawn. I am sure it is still a result of the fluid I had drained from my lungs in the hospital. I do try and take deep breaths all the time to get rid of the fluid. It also show a soft tissue nodule 11x7mm near my small bowel. They don't know if it scar tissue or cancer. There is continued healing of my incision, but no fluid collection to suggest an abscess. So there is really nothing they can do besides chemo to the abdominal pain. I think this last round of antibiotics helped the incision a lot.

Today I feel quite wonderful with the double dose of Decadron. Grandpa and Grandma Hoksbergen treated us to breakfast at DeBoer Bakery. We then did a marathon shopping tour of lots of store and they did some last minute gifts buying for relatives in Bulgaria. Stan is driving them to the airport in Chicago with Rumy. Ross had a Grand Rapids Symphony rehearsal and was not going to be back in time.

We had a wonderful week up at the Homestead. I did have some crazy pains during the week. It was almost like my body saying, you need more chemo. As long as I stayed on the Vicodin I was OK. It was a hot week, but for some reason our house there stays nice and cool inside. The breeze from the water is also nice. My parents were up next door and got lots of projects done. My Dad is feeling good these days and amazed us with his energy. Jackie and Mel came up for a few days too. Jackie make an emergency fun for me on Thursday. I somehow didn't bring enough ileostomy supplies along. I will never do that again!! Thanks again Jackie. One morning we just sat on the deck in our pjs until 1pm watching the humming birds, the regulare birds, the fish jumping in the pond, and watched the thermometer go from 80 to 100 degrees. We were sitting in the shade and it was quite wonderful. In the afternoon, we put on our suits and floated in our blow up rafts with pillows in the pond, Heaven!!

This Thursday we hope to go to the Picnic Pops concert at Cannonsburg. It is all familiar classics and it finishes with fireworks. Ross will be playing with the GRS.

Chemo will be every 3 weeks now, how exciting! I may not have much to report in between time. They did review my CT scan at last Friday's tumor board and they said that I would for sure have two rounds of chemo after my CA-125 is in the normal range. Enjoy the beautiful sunshine! Deb