16. Chemo Cycle No.2 – The Fun and Games continue!

WC 15th Feb 2021, was the first week since Christmas that I didn’t visit the hospital!! Whoop!

The next Chemo was booked in for the 26th February. The days coming up to that I have to go and get some more bloods done to check my levels. I have a pre-assessment call with my Oncologist, to go through issues I had last time, what they want to do to try and fix these issues and check that I’m ok to go ahead with the chemo.

We already know that I am having a reaction to the Docetaxel, so they said they will give me Antihistamines before treatment to see if it will help.

The day before the chemo I have to start taking steroids again, so another day of buzzing and lack of sleep!

So Dan had a prior arrangement in the morning of the 26th, so I had my Mum's partner, Steve, drop me off. I would text Dan a time to pick me up as I wasn’t sure how long it was going to take.

We started at 9:30am, with antihistamines and the anti-sickness tablet. Then goes on the bag of Docetaxel. They start off slow again for the first 30 mins and all is ok.

Today’s nurse looks after a crafting group, so we were having a good old natter about what she does and my crochet skills!

The volunteer came around and asked what I wanted for lunch and if I wanted tea/coffee, I was ok with my squash! I did get some biscuits though! You are so well looked after!

After that 30 mins was up, they upped the speed of the drip, within 5 mins the side effects started again. Indigestion and burping. So they stopped the drip straight away and waited 30 mins to continue. They started again at the slightly slower speed (about 25% volume), and again upped it after 30 mins and the same thing happened. Another 30 min wait and they called the doctor to see if there was anything else they could give me. They suggested famotidine to help with the reflux.

They started the drip again and ordered up some famotidine, as we were not at the hospital they had to get some transferred over. With the drip staying at 25% volume I wasn’t getting any reaction so they kept it that way, it will just take a lot longer for the bag to empty.

I had my lunch, of a fish finger sandwich and some cake, followed by a quick close of the eyes, I was so tired due to not sleeping the night before.

It got to about 4pm and the Docetaxel was finally finished. They swapped the bag over to Cyclophosphamide but I started getting a reaction again. They think it was just because of some of the Docetaxel left in the line. So they done a quick saline flush and carried on again. The Cyclophosphamide normally takes only 30 mins, but they didn’t want to push things so they slowed it down so it took 45mins.

I text Dan to give him an update so he was ready to come get me.

Once I was all done, I packed up my bag and slowly staggered back outside to meet Dan. As I’ve been sat down for a long time my legs didn’t seem to work!

I was there a total of 8.5 hours, I was tired and a bit emotional.

Once I got home it was straight to bed, and to sleep! Problem is, I still have a lot of steroids in my system, so I slept for a few hours and then was awake again. Think I must have got back to sleep about 4am for a few more hours.

I had the following week off work to recover as the injections started the following day and again they made me feel pretty pants. So it was a week, of sleep, eat and rest. Oh and a lot of TV!

After a week of rest I was back to work again.

I feel ok, it’s just I know my brain isn’t working at full capacity. My concentration levels aren’t 100% and just writing an email I have to re-read and re-type it as it’s not quite right.

Luckily work have been very supportive and allowed me to reduce my hours as I was drained by about 3pm. I could easily be signed off completely but I think I would go insane with the boredom and isolation if I didn’t do something! So it’s nice to be able to just pop in and out of work for a few hours a day.

I then have a full week at work, with no special activities related to hospital appointment etc, then another week at work with Bloods, Pre-assessment call and then the next chemo.

Wow, it came around quick this time!