Friday, June 17, 2011

It’s been almost 24 hours now since my first chemo treatment. I don’t want to jinx myself but so far I am feeling pretty good. I hear day #3 is usually the worst so for those that will be in church on Sunday please say an extra prayer for me. Other than some tiredness and hand/ankle swelling that I had yesterday I felt for the most part pretty well. I am drinking a ton of water so that is helping to flush the drugs out of my body.

This afternoon I head back to the cancer center to get a shot in my arm which will help my white blood cell count not drop as low and come back up higher quicker. I thanked the doctor for saying he would like to give me the shot because my kids seem to bring home viruses left and right and even a cold could put me down pretty bad when you don’t have many white blood cells to fight off infections. Day 7 is when my white blood count will lower and then it will increase pretty rapidly as each day goes by. The side effect is bad bone pain. Doc said I can use my leftover narcotics from my recent surgery to help fight the pain.

I have a full supply of side effect medication. It is hard to keep track of what I need to take and when. I have never been a medicine person so this is all new to me. The anti-nausea medicine (Zofran) seems to be helping the most as well as the steriod I am on temporarily. I also have special mouthwash to help with dry mouth, canker sore meds if I get mouth sores, constipation meds, etc. My counter looks like a drug store!

Beautiful day here in Aurora. I plan to enjoy it very much!

Love,
Kim