Tenth

No chemo for me this week! Yay! Okay not really yay because I didn't have chemo because there's a problem with my port, but I'm still happy I didn't have a treatment this week.

My port-o-cath is clogged. That's my internal IV port that's just under the skin on my chest. A catheter runs from it, up under my collar bone, punches into my jugular, and the catheter continues down the vein to one of the big vessels next to the heart. I love it. They don't have to find a new spot every week to start an IV, and my veins aren't being damaged by the chemo because of the size and the flow volume of where the chemo gets dumped into my system.

Over time though, the catheter can get a build-up of gunk - mostly proteins that are apparently sticky molecules, and the end of the catheter can irritate the vessel and cause a little flap of scar tissue to form. So they pumped my port full of a fluid called TPA or Activase which is supposed to break the gunk down. Kind of like a drain cleaner. Yum. If it doesn't work I get to go to the hospital for an xray to see if there's a twist or something in the catheter.

We debated on having the chemo just in a vein, but I didn't want to, and they didn't really want to do that either, and since my blood counts are low enough I could use a small break in my schedule anyway, we'll just skip it this week. So I'm not any less tired, but my morale is up with this unexpected break. And it also means I get to eat this weekend. Hence, back to my original "Yay!".

Cheers

Ninth

Chemo again today. It went okay. They've added IV Magnesium to my schedule cuz I'm so low and my vitamins don't cut it anymore. Deficiency can lead to muscle weakness, cramps, and gut issues, among other things. It's not a bad infusion, it just keeps me in the chair longer every Wednesday.

I think this is the end of the seventh month on this schedule? I'm doing the next month as planned but then I'm taking a break for a month. That's my plan, but I haven't told the doc yet, so I hope he doesn't talk me out of it.

Cancer still sucks, and chemo still sucks. I haven't been to work for a while because of the fatigue. I start to shake sometimes when I do the dishes at home - I can just imagine they'd be thrilled to have me around all that delicate glassware and hot acid lol.

Sorry this post is kind of a downer - but the steroids I'm on (oh my lovely favorite Dexamethasone) kept me up last night, and the third treatment in a cycle generally puts me down a bit anyway. Just thought I'd better make my monthly post.

And I'm going hunting in a couple of months, so I'm excited about that. Well, I'll be in the forest wearing orange and sitting under a tree and napping while others hunt, but that's close enough for me at the moment. =)

Cheers