ROUND TWO
March 5, 2008, 5:27 pm
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Sanity Around the holidays I posted a blog titled “Stay Warm.” It was mainly about a dear friend of mine who is now battling invasive cancer. Invasive is a horrible word defined as either armed aggression or tending to encroach on one’s privacy. It her case it means both. But my blog was not about that, but rather how we could all use an attitude adjustment from time to time.
At the time, I was feeling blue because of all the things I had to do to prepare for the holidays and the lack of time I had to get them all done, blah blah blah. I returned home one day to find an email from this friend. My attitude was adjusted immediately.
It is funny how life works sometimes. Today, I am in NYC again running from meeting to meeting to meeting to reception to drinks. Yesterday it poured and again I was feeling down and somewhat overwhelmed. Being busy is great, but there are times when I wish I had a bit more time for me. Squeezing in dinner with my parents, scheduling windows of time with my husband and seeing friends once a month at best is just not my idea of a balanced life. I have made a bigger effort lately to do more of all of the above and am proud to say it is working. But yesterday in a moment of weakness, I caved in and was feeling out of sorts.
And almost as if it was planned, I received another email from my spirited friend. It came with “Round Two” in the subject heading and I wanted to share it with you just in case you are having a bad day (changed a bit to maintain her privacy).
My friend is a wonderful example of how to adjust your attitude. Her message is defined as inspiration.
Good Monday Morning,
Had the first round of my new chemo drugs last Friday and unfortunately it didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. Actually, that’s a bit understated since once things started to go wrong everything seemed to go wrong. I’ll just give you the highlights from my weekend, hope yours was better J
After receiving about ¾ of my Herceptin dose I had a reaction that gave me chills and “rigors” ( technical term for uncontrollable shakes). Not feeling so hot after those passed we stopped further treatment for the day. I spent a few more hours in the hospital and then they sent me home. (Sorry for all the excitement laura, I’m hoping for better results next time.) Anyway, after I was dropped off I headed straight for bed, woke up a bit later with a splitting migraine thanks to the Demerol, took my Imitrex, went back to sleep, woke up shortly after that with a raging fever and chills. By the time my husband got home I wasn’t in great shape. Called for an ambulance, but they wouldn’t take me to BI in Boston so we drove. Being somewhat mentally impaired from the fever I insisted we take my car only to find out that I had NO GAS. He had to stop and get some while rushing his wife to the ER. Someone really should give this guy a medal or something. The ER staff was great, took me right in, and come to find out, if you’re a cancer patient getting chemo, you get to have a private room in the ER to keep you away from all those yucky germs that everyone else has. After three litres of saline and a few doses of antibiotics I was admitted to the hospital. Blood pressure was really low and heart rate really high so they wanted to get that sorted out before sending me home. Don’t know if I had an infection but the fever subsided and I was able to sleep a bit off and on. Maybe that was just the morphine that let me sleep. Went home Saturday night so I got to sleep in my own bed which was great. Spent Sunday on the couch resting and still doing that today.
Haven’t spoken to my oncologist yet, but I think the plan remains unchanged and I’ll be doing it all again on this Friday. I heard from several doctors that my body may just have been reacting to a new protein and that the next time I get it I will probably be fine. So that is what we’ll do. I need this drug, so I intend to try it again, and again.
Like I said, I hope your weekend was better than mine, but I still feel pretty positive since this is the first time I’ve had such a dramatic reaction to any of my treatments. I’m sure the next one will be better. As a matter of fact, my hubby has ordered me not to let it happen again, so I guess that clinches it. I’ll be laying low for a few days, but hopefully not for long.
Thanks again to all for taking such good care of me and my boys. Once again I see how blessed I am to have such a great support system. It certainly is taking a village to get me through this.
xo
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