Chemo is now on hold. Can anyone say SEVERE ALLERGIC REACTION?? Well that is what I had. Only 5% of the people taking TAXOL have this kind of reaction ~ I guess that I could never fall into the NORMAL catagory. I think that my new nick-name is going to have to be ABBY (short for Abby-normal!). (Please be prepared when you read further for the full details of my adventure - it is more for me to recall at a later date).
I arrived at my doctors office at 8:30 for my first chemo treatment with some excitement to finally get started so I could get finished, and fear of what was to come. It was explained in our chemo training meeting that there are four recliner chairs where the patients sit to receive their chemo treatment and a couch and some hard chairs where those who are accompaning you may sit. A relaxing atmosphere it was to be.
We walked into the room and it was TOTALLY FULL and not relaxing in the least. They had two more chemo treatments set up on that day than usual, so I was seated in one of the HARD chairs and they went to find another chair so my husband could sit by me. We were seated just inside the doorway. The nurse who was administring the chemo came over and started right to work on hooking me up for my chemo treatment. I thought, boy am I going to be able to sit in this HARD chair for the full 4-6 hours of treatment? There was not a choice in this matter. Needless to say, I was a little worked up. Also, my fear of a reaction was foremost in my mind.
The nurse got the pic line right in, so that was a relief to me. Then started the flurry of different drugs being put into the pic line. Benedrly and other anti-nausea drugs were put in and after about 20 minutes "Taxol" the chemo drug was started. All of the others that were receiving their chemo drips were doing just fine and visiting. I got to hear some of their stories. Next week should not be as crowded because two ladies were receiveing their last chemo treatments (horray for them!!) will would not be back. There were three of us other newbies that will be taking their place.
I really hit if off with a lady named Ruth, who just had the same surgery as me, but just three days earlier. She also had the same Dr. as I did and now we were starting our chemo treatments together. She has stage 4 ovarian cancer plus other issues. Anyway, she didn't seem to be having any difficulty with her chemo and was about a 1/2 hour ahead of me on her chemo drip, so I was relieved to see that she wasn't having problems. I felt that I would be okay.
About 15 minutes into my treatment I started having severe back pain and muscle spams. I asked the nurse if this was normal and she said sometimes people have them. She adjusted the pic line down to a slower rate and asked me to let her know when the symptoms subsided and she would resume. After a bit, my eyes started becoming blood shot (like blood had been pored into them red). I think that people thought I was crying, but I wasn't. I was having really hot hot flashes, more like burning. The nurse then turned on the fan and directed it to me. After about 10 minutes or so, the back pain went away and she started the drip again. She set it to go in slowly and I was able to do alright with it. After a bit she increased the rate. That is when I developed severe chest pain and squeezing. I was definately worried about this because I am in A-fib and did not want to have a heart attack or stroke.
The nurse just watched me for about 10 more minutes and the pain still increased. She then closed off the drip line and said she was going to move me to one of the chairs to watch me more closely. She started moving the roller system that had the drip line attached and forgot to ask me to come with it. I tried to get the nurse to stop and wait for me, but it was too late. Needless to say, I was still attached to the drip system and the pic came out. It was like a finger reached down and flipped the pic line right out of my chest (no doubt one of my many guardian angels!!). The nurse said that this might be a good time to use the restroom and then she would get me settled in the chair and resume.
I went to the restroom and when I pulled down my clothing, I noticed that I had the biggest hives ever all over my legs (fear immediately went into play!!). I finished using the restroom and when I stood up I looked at my abdomen in the mirror and sure enough BIG HIVES there too. I then lifted my shirt up to my breasts and they were TOTALLY RED - no skin showing at all. I called the nurse in and she said you are definately having a reaction. She took me back into the room with all the people and settled me down in the chair and went to talk to the doctor. My doctor was not there because he was in surgery, so she asked the doctor that was there. The nurse came back to me and said that I was definately "done for today". (I got my get out of jail free card!!) She also said that when my Dr. came back tomorrow, they would have a consult to see what my next step would be as far as future treatment. She gave me another benedryl and said that I could sit there for a bit to make sure that the hives were going away. They didn't want me to be to far down the road just in case I started having a worse reaction. The hives started to fade, so we left around 12:00 to head for home.
We ate some lunch and then I rested for the afternoon. Around 9:30 p.m. I started with a new rash in the upper chest area around my port up into my neck and chest. I was worried that since the pic line just came out of the port that some of the chemo was still making me react. I took some more benedryl but it didn't seem to do much.
Today, January 15th, I called back into the office and spoke to the nurse. They are going to call me in a steroid to help keep the reaction down. The nurse said that she had spoke to the Dr. and they are going to start me on a different chemo treatment. It will be done as in patient treatment at the hospital so that they can monitor me closley. The nurse said that I am to see my heart doctor before they can proceed with any further chemo treatment to get clearance from him.
I have my heart doctor appointment on Tuesday the 20th, and we will go from there. The heart doctor is planning to set me up to shock my heart back into NORMAL rythum (don't forget that I am NOT normal, so I am hoping that this won't be another Abby moment!!). It needs to beat properly to be able to pump the chemo throughout my body instead of it just sitting there in the heart and not pumping it out quickly.
Needless to say, I am glad that the surgery went to well. Chemo is truly going to be the toughest part for me. It is a setback, but they will get the right treatment that I CAN handle and I will hopefully be back on the road soon.
I am still to blessed to be stressed and "I KNOW THAT IT WILL NOT BE EASY, ONLY WORTH IT!!" I am so grateful to my WONDERFUL MOTHER for always instilling in me a positive attitude. She always tells me "Sheree, remember A.I.E., Attitude is Everything!!!
