Last Week's Happenings & Things to Come (long post)

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it's been so long since my last post.  I've been wanting to get it done for several days, and even started a couple of times, but then just got distracted, ran out of of energy, or something!  Anyways, I just did it again!  Wrote 2 sentences and then got distracted with other things: Facebook, phone calls, etc.  Aargh!  So...I will try to focus on this now for longer than 2 minutes.  This will be a long post, I suspect.  Don't mean to bore anyone, but I want this for documentation for myself later, because I know I will forget details... :)  I know some of you will be interested, since I haven't been communicating very much with you - sorry!  I hope you will keep reading until the end because there is some important info there about the upcoming weeks and I will be needing your wonderful prayers -- VERY MUCH!

Just realized my last post was 10 days ago.  Steve wrote the most recent post 8 days ago.  At that time I had just had the "chemo port" installed and we had (at my request) just postponed the start of the chemo treatments for 6 days, from March 9 to March 15.  (Yes, that was yesterday!)  It was hard to do because we also learned that day that my CT scan the day before showed the cancer was on the outside of my liver and other surrounding areas.  The doctor agreed to wait, but only 1 week.

I was feeling run down and the insertion site for the port was still raw and sore.  I just needed more time to heal and get stronger, and I am so thankful for that extra time.

So the week went pretty well.  I was taking medications which made me feel better, but then because I was feeling okay, I would over-do things and feel more poorly in the evenings.  I (pretty much) learned to stop that, would force myself to take naps, and that helped a bit.

What I didn't realize was that I was running out of my most potent medicine.  If I hadn't have postponed my chemo for 6 days I wouldn't have run out.  And there was no refill on this particular drug since it is a controlled med.  So the DAY BEFORE my chemo, I realized I had 2 pills.  No problem, I thought, I will call the physician's assistant and get a prescription renewal.  I took one in the morning, called the hospital, could only get through to a person who told me there was a 24 to 48 hour advance notice required to get a renewal.  I begged them to try to get it earlier than that.  They said they would try.  Waited for a phone call.  I held onto that last "golden pill" and took Tylenol and Ibuprofen, which weren't as effective.  Called the hospital later in the afternoon, left a message, never heard anything back, so resigned myself to the fact that there would be no more of those wonderful pills.

I had wanted to go into chemo feeling well, and now I was stressing.  I didn't want to take my last pill until right before bedtime, but I was feeling worse and worse.  (I realized later that I was probably experiencing withdrawal symptoms from that potent drug - yikes!)  I just wanted to cry!  I sent out a cryptic prayer request on Facebook (no details, just PRAY!), and immediately started receiving responses.  This was sometime before 8 p.m.  It was amazing!  I didn't take my pill until 10:30 p.m., but I started feeling better way before then.  Once again, (no surprise!) God heard and answered all the wonderful prayers of my wonderful, faithful friends and family.  He is so AWESOME!  I love Him!  And I love you guys too.  ☺

As I mentioned on Facebook, I got decent sleep and in the morning we headed to the UNM Cancer Center.  Got there at 8 a.m.  There was a delay, but finally got my blood drawn (through my chemo port -- yay!  no pokes in my arm) after a while, and then went to my 9 a.m. appointment to see the doctor before the chemo.

All this time I was relying on my awesome God to help my Tylenol and anxiety medicine to control the pain, and He came through.  It wasn't the easiest, but it wasn't so bad.  I knew people were still praying and God was still answering.

Finally got up to the chemo suite and had to wait again!  It was a long time.  I'm not sure how long.  I sent some posts from my phone to Facebook, but they didn't go through, so I don't have a record of how long I waited, but eventually I got a chair in the suite, and some warm blankets.  Waited a little while, had consultation with the nurse, and finally the chemo could start.  Ate some lunch, and after a while was feeling nice and drowsy, thanks to the Benadryl they gave me.  I was feeling good.

Everything went very well.  Had a time period later on when I felt super irritable and my legs felt "antsy" and later a nurse told me it was probably due to the Benadryl wearing off.  But I got past that, with God's help.

Finally the chemo ended at about 6 p.m.  And finally we got home about 7 p.m.  I was so drowsy.  Was on the couch, didn't want any dinner.  Steve told me just go to bed!  So I did, after taking my nausea medicine as directed, and also one of my new prescription of pain pills (yay!)  I slept really well.

I am now trying to be careful with those more potent pain pills.  I do NOT want to experience any more withdrawal symptoms!  That was awful.  I am taking nausea pills every 8 hours, and this is actually a preventive step, because the nausea and bad side effects are not expected to happen for several days.  But hopefully they will be less because of the medicine I'm taking now.

As I mentioned on Facebook, I should expect to feel effects probably around the middle of next week.  I just hope and pray they are not too awful.  I should lose my hair also.  As my immune system takes a downslide, I should experience the worst of the side effects (nausea, metallic taste in my mouth, possible mouth sores, numbness and tingling in my hands and feet) between 6 to 10 days after treatment, and then I should get better and then I will have treatment #2 three weeks afer the first treatment (that would be April 5).  Each treatment will be about 6 hours long, and there should be 7 treatments total if I remember correctly.  I will have to be very careful about not catching any germs during those times when my immune system is the most suppressed.

Oh, yeah, the effects of the chemo drugs are cumulative so the last 3 treatments should be harder than the first 3.  I will definitely need LOTS of prayer.  So I thank you (and God) in advance.  I know there is POWER in prayer, and it comes from my faithful, awesome, loving, merciful, beautiful, gracious, trustworthy, and praiseworthy Savior, Lord, and King.  I am amazed at how much He loves me and helps me.  I give Him ALL the glory.

I thank you all.  I love you all.  May God bless you all.
Caroline ♥
(I'm tired; need a nap)