3rd Chemo today

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I sat down to post a few times, but then decided that I didn't really have anything new to say about the cancer..... we've had a houseful of relatives, too, and I've been hanging out with them more than on the computer I guess..... also, my favorite computer sits in the room that is also the guest room...... I have to curtail my computer activities when people want to go to sleep! (The other computer is the laptop, which Matthew uses a lot, and Em lately does too.... even ALan sometimes does. BUt I don't like it much -- I only use it under duress, like when we're out of town and it's the only one that travels.)

ANyhow I went to my third infusion today. The hard part was having to get up at 7 when my kids didn't have to go to school.....that's probably the REAL reason why they have me take steroids the day before chemo -- so I can pop out of bed like toast after only 4-5 hours' sleep! (BOy that's a dated joke; who has pop-up toasters anymore? It's like telling your kids they sound like broken records.....)

Hmm, I haven't gotten real far with this posting. I'll have to pick up the pace or it's going to be a looooong post!

Okay so I got ready early and was sure I'd be early, but there was a glitch somewhere, because I was 15 mins late, and after a day of attributing it to the gale winds on the ride, I came home to hear my mom tell me that in fact I'd lollygagged getting the house and had left about 15 mins late.

I hadn't read about the wind forecast. There were like 30 mph winds with gusts of up to 50+ mph. When I was biking over the key bridge I was...... very glad that there was a concrete barrier between the sidewalk (where the bikes go too, like the Mass Ave bridge between Cambridge & Boston in MA) and the cars. I debated getting off my bike and walking, but I decided that would give the wind more time to blow my glasses off, so I kept riding. I passed a guy holding onto a pillar to keep from being blown away. I told him I'd never seen anything like this, and he laughed. BUt by the time I passed the next guy, who got onto the bridge after the big gust had passed, there was nothing to say; the wind was once again within the realm of the ordinary.

Joan was later getting out than I so she caught me a little before the MD line. (The routs starts in VA, get to DC after the Key bridge, and bike up the Capitol Crescent trail, where we cross the line into MD about..... maybe 4-5 miles from the doc's office? Joan will know the mileage better than I -- she has a computer on the bike she rides with me to chemo, and I don't.)

The doc said a lot of things, but basically I'm on track and none of the side effects are going to be serious or lasting, so I can continue. He referred me to the nurses about meds to help with indigestion. I got some other thing injected into my infusion bag to help (tagamet.) The indigestion started anyway; I had to roll down my pants in the infusion room, and I don't think it was because of the salad I ate for lunch. I wrote down some ideas the nurse gave me of things I can get at the pharmacy -- so far I've tried mylanta, maalox, and gas-x. The recommendations I got today were for mylecon, tagamet, and prilosec. (If any of youse guys have any experience with or knowledge of these meds, please share!)

My blood counts were good today -- in fact my WBC is high normal, which makes me wonder about the necessity of continuing to get neulasta...... (wbc=9.7, on a scale of 3.8-10.8.) The nurses said I do still need it, because my counts will go down with the chemo, but that if it's above range next time I should talk to the doc about whether or not to get neulasta next time. Even the red count's okay (HGB just in range and HCT just under) and platelets are okay too, 193 on a scale of 140-400.

Oh and then I got this wierd chest thing just at the very end, hours after I'd finished with the taxotere (which can cause breathing problems, but usually within the first 15 mins of the drip.) When I breathed in deeply it was like.... you know when you have a cold and suddenly it threatens to move into your chest and become bronchitis or pneumonia? It was like that, except I don't have a cold. I was okay when breathing regularly. They took my BP and listened to my chest and pronounced me well and fit to bike home. I wondered..... we talked about what to do if it got worse (georgetown ER is on the way home.)

In fact it was the right decision; when I got outside the wind was clearly a bigger problem than my chest, and the wind also seemed calmer once we got onto the trail. (There's .5-1 mile of streets between the medical office building and the trail entrance.) Then when we were only a third of the way home I realized that my chest was all better! I guess it needed some deep heavy biking breathing to help it go away. (YOu know, that works when I'm actually sick, too -- when I'm getting better but still feeling crud in my chest. And now I'm remembering that it helped get the anesthesia out of my lungs after surgery.)

Joan and I had debated taking the train home instead of riding because of the winds, but we were glad we didn't, because it wasn't as bad as the morning had been -- though actually I took long enough getting home that Alan and the other folks on the home front were worried. I've done it in an hour after eye appointments, but this took an hour 45 mins. (BUt hey I was on benadryl..... and chemo, but I think it's the benadryl at that point -- tomorrow it will be the chemo.) I didn't feel slow, but I can always tell I am anyway when Joan has to stop and wait at the tops of hills...... (THey haven't worried before but they haven't been home before -- I'm usually just late for the kids. THEY only worried last time when Matthew was sick and his fever started to go up...... and rightly so! Guess who took care of him..... but I wrote about that, didn't I?)

Anyway I was proud of myself today for not only having ridden all 26 miles in strong winds, but for having enjoyed it too! :-D