Tuesday, February 26th was my second round of chemotherapy. We did things a little differently so that we could have less adverse reactions than we did with round one. No prednisone during the day of chemo and took Ativan to relax me beforehand. A typical infusion rate of R-Chop is 6-7 hours. Round 1 took 12.5 hours, but round 2, we finished in 7.5 hours! Great improvement. We had 2 different adverse reactions, the first being heavy chest and shortness of breath with lower back pain, they slowed the drip down and it went away. A little later, I started sneezing and head got super congested, again slowed the drip down and that decreased. It is like a moving target in my body as the drugs flow through my veins. The day actually goes really fast as there are so many moving parts and distractions. Dana and I manage to entertain ourselves as I never can just fall asleep. Pacific Shores Oncology is an awesome place if you have to go to a place like this. The staff is really amazing and so helpful. Some of my favorites are Remy, Shawna, and Tammy and of course Dr. Danny. But they are really all wonderful. Thank you for taking such great care of me.
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| Dynamic Duo |
- Round 1: I am, I can, I will, I do (inspired by Peloton Instructor)
- Round 2: Be Brave, Be Strong, Be Fearless
***For those interested in the type of chemotherapy I am having (I am learning so much right now), below is the name and breakdown of the chemo cocktail.
R-CHOP is used to treat non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).
CHOP comes from the initials of the drugs used:
- R – rituximab (Rituximab is not a chemotherapy drug. It is a targeted therapy and belongs to a group of drugs called monoclonal antibodies. -This is the drug that gives me the most trouble - part human/part mouse antibody - ya think?? Of course, my body is rejecting it - it has part mouse antibody in it for god's sake - ew.)
- C – cyclophosphamide
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| Red Devil |
- H – doxorubicin (hydroxydaunomycin) -(also known as the "red devil" - goes in red, comes out red and is the CAUSE of hair loss - thank you, NOT)
- O – vincristine (Oncovin®)
- P – prednisolone (a steroid) - At 100 mg a day, I hate this, makes me super hyper, amped and difficult to sleep) - take this orally for 5 days each chemo cycle.
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| #f#@kcancer |
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| Peace! |
Quick Update: Today, I went back for Injection 1 of 3 of Zarxio (do not read the side effects - I don't). Zarxio is a man-made form of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) called filgrastim. G-CSF is a natural substance produced by the body. The purpose of G-CSF is to stimulate the growth of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell important in the body's fight against infection. My neutrophils keep dropping - they come back but when they drop it is lower than they prefer. The biggest side effect I will have is that it will cause my bones to ache. Whose bones don't ache at 52? Injection 2 and 3 - Friday and Saturday!! And now, I am done educating you people for today! #lifelonglearner
YOU'RE DA BOMB! LOL My caps lock was on and I started to delete it but then decided that I'm going to go ahead and yell it at you anyway. :-) Man, I'm learning so much too, thank you for letting us know about the R-CHOP. Soooo glad this round took less time. Yay to amazing sister Dana! Hugs you two!
ReplyDeleteHaha. Love the caps! Love you. Learning so much...crazy, right?
DeleteHi Jenith. This is Cathy Deckers from Pepperdine. Having just gone through all this chemo stuff from my daughter I might recommend changing the Zarxio to the one shot name brand (Neulasta). My daughter had horrible pain from the 3 day method and it was a significantly better result from the one day shot (both pain wise and WBC stimulation). It is quite a bit more expensive and they will tell you that it won't make a difference but it did. And if Kaiser can approve it certainly you can get it covered by your insurance.
ReplyDeletePS your bones are achy because they are overstimulated by the medicine to produce WBCs. Sometimes the med can also cause inflammation in your abdominal organs so keeping up a pain regime even when you don't feel pain is good you can mix/overlap Tylenol and Advil to decrease the inflammation and change up the pain receptors. Not sure if they told you but taking Claritin not ClaritinD before the shot minimizes the inflammatory symptoms. Someone told us this about 2 months in.
DeleteHey Cathy - great to hear from you. Thank you so much for sharing this information. The 3 day method was AWFUL! Round 3 - we are switching to Neulasta. The UCLA doc wanted Neulasta but my oncologist had already gotten Zarxio approved for the last chemo cycle. Since then, Insurance approved the Neulasta -I am so glad to hear it will will be less painful. They did recommend the Claritin but the ClaritinD so I will definitely switch that. I have had the bone ache as expected but also the abdominal inflammation/tenderness but did not know that was related - so again, thank you. This whole journey is so crazy..I am hoping your daughter is in remission and doing well.
DeleteJenith your spirit and good outlook will help you so much through this journey. Sara is doing well living in remission (triple negative breast cancer with BRCA1 gene @ age 34) - 7 months (we check labs every 3 months and scan once a year). Each phase of the journey brings something new. Again, the love of family and friends and your great outlook makes all the difference. It is so true that you measure time differently, the priorities change, and you enjoy so much more in the moment. Keep fighting friend!
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