Chemo round 3

Had a different nurse today. No Rachel. Although she did come by and talk to me for a while to see how things were going. Now the new nurse today Angela? I think was her name I liked her. My dad likes Rachel better. Difference Rachel is the head honcho there. You will see all the other nurses deffer to her and ask her questions. She is a take charge and here is what we are doing. She is great for a first or second time chemo patient which I think I figured out today is her primary job. Now I've had 2 rounds I know what the score is so I got Angela. She did a great job in setting up my IV. Didn't hurt much. She got good blood return which is first thing I asked her. She took my vitals and we talked about Femara which I found out is not what I'm having. I think I read about it. I'm getting Feraheme. Which is the IV delivered iron. She didn't know Dr. Barth wanted me to have this. She said well we don't have approval from your insurance. We can get that in a couple of days and then administer it. Well, no way in my book. That's another poke. I'm set up and ready to go. I'm going through an extra poke for the insurance? No way. So I tell her look Dr. Barth wants me to have this no matter what. If the insurance won't pay for it, then I will because this isn't an optional thing. But, I'm having the dose today. So she went to talk to Rachel and I hear her say she wants it today no matter what and is willing to pay cash. Rachel says oh her insurance will cover it no problem don't worry about it. She comes back and says we are going to call and try to get an approval over the phone if we can't then we will have someone from billing come up to have you sign something saying you will be responsible for paying for it. I said that's fine as long as I get it today.

So what went on. She gave me the taxotere first as that's the chemo I'm not allergic to. It ran threw in about an hour. No problems. But she only set up the chemo. The last two times I've had chemo, Rachel set up and piggy backed a saline solution to the IV. So I had chemo and hydration going into me at the same time. I wanted that. Dad wasn't happy that she didn't do this. I said look she's coming back in a minute (I had asked her for a copy of my blood work and my oncotype dx test and she was off getting these for me) and I'll talk to her about it. When she got back I told her in the past I get an piggy back hydration IV. She asked me do you want that this time? I said yes. She asked me what size bag the small one or large one. I pointed to one I saw someone else had and said that size. She said no problem I'll get that for you. And she did. So I was fine with it. She asked me if I needed the tylenol for the cytoxan rather than just giving it to me like Rachel did. I was fine with this. She was just more along the lines of letting the patient call more of the shots. Then the cytoxan came next. Now this time I'm paying attention and about 30 minutes into it I can feel the start of the smog breathing deal. I raise my hand and she and Rachel come running over. I said yea the smog breathing thing is just starting. Rachel asks me do you have tightening of the chest. I say yes. Here's the deal with that, it really doesn't feel like tightening of the chest but breathing in deep and feeling like a smoggy day. I don't know if that is exactly tightening of the chest but, when I say yes they turn off the chemo which is what I need them to do. So I say yes. They turned it off for about 10 minutes and it went away. They started up again and it didn't come back. It took 3 hours for this one to run through so a total of four hours for chemo today. Much shorter than the 7 hours it took last time. Then it was time for Feraheme, iron infusion. Now out comes a huge syringe of the stuff. Takes one minute for her to inject this into the IV as this has to be administered through the IV. Thank goodness I really wouldn't want that much stuff injected straight into my arm or butt. Now she tells me you need to sit her for about 15 minutes as you may have a reaction. Sweet Mother of God is there anything you can not be allergic to? Apparently not. I ask what reaction am I looking for here? She says oh you'll know. If you feel any different just let me know and it will happen in the first 15 minutes after that you will be fine. Well, that was a fun 15 minutes feeling like a time bomb about to go off. Nothing happened.

Now for more fun stuff. Tomorrow I go for my neulestra shot at 3pm. Really this shot is no big deal but boost my white blood cells. Next Friday I get to go back for my second infusion of the Feraheme. Dr. Barth told me I would be getting two doses but for some reason I figured they would be both today. Wrong. Today and then 3 to 8 days later for the second. I chose the 8th day because that's the day I start to feel human again after chemo. So I'll go back on the 11th. IV will be setup, blood drawn and then iron infusion. Now my iron is just a little below what it should be so they feel this first infusion will put me into the right range but this treatment is done in two doses. But if this first fusion does put me in the good range then I won't have to go back a week later for a blood drawn to see if the second one put me there because they will know the first one did. This will mean one less poke. I'm all for less pokes at this point.

So overall I would say this day went well. 7 hours down to 4 is much less tiring. And the reaction stopped faster. Yes I would say the chemo infusion was a big improvement and went well today.

Now to see if the bowels go better.

I might not be blogging for the next few days, but if the bowels go better you might see something here then. Don't worry if you don't see anything for a few days, but feel free to email mail me with any concerns. I'll try to check those.

Love to all.