Tomorrow I have my second chemo treatment of four. That means when I am done I will be half way through this crap. That's the good news. Now I am just trying to psych myself up for the long, exhausting chemo day.
My day will start at 9am with my weekly blood draw and an appointment with the oncologist. Then we are off to chemo. Since I am doing the cold caps to keep the hair, I will be taking my ativan right before we leave for the hospital in the morning to make the caps more tolerable. So then we do the cold caps for 50 minutes before they start my chemo. My pre-meds will be done during this time.
My first chemo is Taxotere - which can be bad for the body. Fifteen minutes before it starts, I start icing my fingers and toes while putting ice in my mouth all while I have the frozen caps on my head. Thank God for electric blankets!!! The ice on fingers and toes helps prevent neuropathy (numbness) and loss of finger/toe nails. The ice in the mouth helps prevent mouth sores. I have to do this for fifteen minutes before and after the taxotere drip, plus the one hour during the drip. It is one long hour and a half. The worst thing last time was my poor toes! I hate icing my toes! Ugh! Thank God for ativan!
The caps were not so bad last time...just long! A total of seven hours of caps - changing them every 30 minutes. It was a long day, but we were busy most of the day with the cap change routine. There was not much time to relax....once we got settled again, it was almost time for another cap change. My husband was so good with the caps...I am lucky he's an engineer (he's so detail oriented!!!) and does everything exactly as it should be done.
Tomorrow my sister will be joining us for help and moral support. I am so glad she is coming with me. I rarely get so spend time with her without kids around so it will be nice. She is also a chemo infusion nurse so she can see the caps work first hand and be a part of it. It is such a nice treat to spend a day with my sister....we never do that! Too bad it's not at the spa or something, but I will enjoy it anyway.
I have so much to do today to get ready for chemo and prepare for the days after where I may not feel well. Time to grocery shop and cook a few things to hold over the family for the next few days. I keep saying..."I will be half way done tomorrow" over and over again.......
hi there,
ReplyDeletemy wife starts chemo in 3 weeks time after a breast cancer masectomy. She & I are sure she'll be able to cope with everything,her biggest worry is losing her lovely hair which
the doctor says is inevitable.Now I read about "cold caps" & I must admit it's something I've never heard of.Can you give me more info please?
Google Penguin Cold Caps and you will find the website. If you give me an email address I would be happy to chat with you and answer questions about my experience. I still have a full head of hair...yes it sheds, but it's still there. You can find a lot of information on www.breastcancer.org under the message board section Help Me Get Through Treatment. There is a thread called Cold Cap Users Past and Present that is full of ladies that have used them....it was the best resource. Please give me an email address and we can chat...I can delete your email address from my blog comments after I get it if you like. I am sorry about your wife's diagnosis...hugs! I am going to pray for her tonight.....
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