I did chemo on Friday, the 4th & felt fine again. At first they weren’t sure they were going to let me go through with it because my right hand was tingling like it was asleep & my left hand was swollen from the lymphedema (swelling of the lymph nodes). I had an ultrasound done on Monday & a CAT scan on Tuesday to make sure it’s just lymphedema & not the blood clot moving down my left arm. I think this lymphedema is something I’m going to have to deal with the rest of my life. It doesn’t seem like there’s much that can be done about it. I have compression sleeves I wear, but I don’t notice a difference. I think at some point Seattle Cancer Care Alliance will have me do physical therapy & massage therapy for it, but they haven’t scheduled anything so far.
My days stay pretty busy. I have a lot to do & keep track of. First thing when I get up I have to remember to take my temperature. Before I can eat breakfast, lunch & dinner I have to prick my finger & check my blood sugar level. I have a short acting type of insulin I take before meals & a long lasting type I take before bedtime. If the numbers are high I stab myself in the leg with insulin. Fun times. I have to write down everything I eat, measure it & count my carbs. At 9:00 a.m. I take 18 pills. At 10:00 a.m. I clean & flush my central Picc line. At noon I take another pill. At dinner I take 3 more pills. Before I go to bed I check my temperature & my blood sugar level & shoot up again. =)
The PET scan will be somewhere between July 21-24 to see if the chemo has suppressed the cancer enough. So by the end of that week I should know if I’m doing the transplant the following week or if I have to do another 28 day regimen.
I forgot to mention in my last update the hair situation has changed. The chemo I just did will supposedly make my hair fall out again or possibly just thin. I check it everyday & nothing has come out so far.
I also forgot to mention some nodules showed up on or around my thyroid. They don’t know if it’s cancer yet or not. If the results of the PET scan show they’ve shrunk then it’s cancer, but if they don’t change then apparently it won’t be anything to worry about.
Right now I have appointments at least every other day at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance-blood draws every other day, weekly Picc line dressing changes, a weekly meeting with my doctors & a weekly meeting with the nutritionist to stay on top my insulin dosage. I don’t have anything tomorrow, so I get a day off. Yea!
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