Completed fifth round of chemo

Ro10
Ro10 Member Posts: 1,561 Member
Two long days again. They gave me emend IV for nausea the first day with my Cisplatin. While I was getting my post hydration, I got very nauseated and had dry heaves. Compazine usually works for me, but there is a shortage of IV compazine, so it was not available. Zofran does not work for me, so they gave me IV Ativan. It stopped the dry heaves, but not the nausea. So I went home and took a compazine pill and slept for a couple of hous and the nausea went away.

Day two I got Aloxi for nausea with the Taxol. Day two was uneventful. However tonight I am nauseated and had to take compazine. I put my patch on tonight and will leave it on for seven days. They did give me a prescription for Ativan pills if I need them for nausea. I know others have talked about how they had used Ativan.

Next time they will give me the Aloxi on day one and Emend on day two. That's what they did last treatment, and I had no nausea.

My blood work continues to look good. The doctor did not order a CA 125 though. I told him I would to know what it was. Knowing it is going down is encouragement for me to keep taking the chemo. My CA 125 dropped from 365 to 148. I will probably need two more treatments. Considering my CA 125 was 3200 before I started chemo the drugs are still responding very good.

This doctor is talking about using Avastin for maintenance to make the time between the stronger chemo longer. I am not sure I want to do that. It does not seem like a break if I am taking more drugs. Anyone have thoughts on it. He also talked about hormone therapy. I told him I took Arimidex and it did not do anything. He said there were other things to try.

I still have swelling of my eyelids. He thought it might be from the steroids, or from allergies. He said if it did not bother me or effect my vision he would just ignore it for now.

I asked his thoughts about the blood thinner shots when I stop chemo. He said it is really unclear whether the chemo or the cancer is causing the clots. He said if I worried about having a stroke then continuing the shots would be best. But even with the shots there is no guarantee I won't have a stroke. But he said if I was comfortable with taking the pills they I should switch to the pills. I do worry about a stroke, so I guess I will continue with the slots every day.

There were so many people this week much sicker from the chemo than I am. I am thankful I am tolerating the chemo as well as I am.

Hope you are all having a good weekend. I was able to work in the gardens this week. I can only work about an hour and then I take a break, and then work for another hour. Things are getting in shape. In peace and caring.

Comments

  • HellieC
    HellieC Member Posts: 524 Member
    Through the mill again, Ro?
    Sounds like you've been through the mill again with this round of chemo, Ro. But you've got through it and those numbers dropping is such an encouraging sign. As you say, a couple more cycles and you should have this beast back under control.
    I so admire your positive spirit through all this. I can't really adise about the avastin or the blood thinner shots, as I have no experience of them, but I'm sure you will come to the best decision for you.
    Enjoy working in your garden - over here in the UK, we have had terrible weather this last few weeks - lots of rain - and all the gardens are growing like crazy but we can't get out there to tame them. However, knowing our crazy British weather we will probably have a heatwave around the corner and we will all be moaning that it is too hot! We British love to complain about our weather!
    Kindest thoughts
    Helen x
  • light42day
    light42day Member Posts: 62 Member
    HellieC said:

    Through the mill again, Ro?
    Sounds like you've been through the mill again with this round of chemo, Ro. But you've got through it and those numbers dropping is such an encouraging sign. As you say, a couple more cycles and you should have this beast back under control.
    I so admire your positive spirit through all this. I can't really adise about the avastin or the blood thinner shots, as I have no experience of them, but I'm sure you will come to the best decision for you.
    Enjoy working in your garden - over here in the UK, we have had terrible weather this last few weeks - lots of rain - and all the gardens are growing like crazy but we can't get out there to tame them. However, knowing our crazy British weather we will probably have a heatwave around the corner and we will all be moaning that it is too hot! We British love to complain about our weather!
    Kindest thoughts
    Helen x

    Completed 5th round of Chemo
    I hope your nausea is getting under control now. That is just the pits feeling nauseated all the time! I think you are so strong going through all the Chemo! Hope you have good weather and are able to get more done in your garden, too!

    Prayers and blessings to you!
    Peg
  • snowbird_11
    snowbird_11 Member Posts: 160
    Ro, so glad to see you are
    Ro, so glad to see you are able to get out in your gardens and have that wonderful form of therapy despite all that you are going through. You have wonderful stamina for your blood counts to continue to hold to get your treatments and get to see that number continuing to drop. I hope that nausea is easing up for this round so you can enjoy the gardening even more.
    Annie
  • Double Whammy
    Double Whammy Member Posts: 2,832 Member

    Ro, so glad to see you are
    Ro, so glad to see you are able to get out in your gardens and have that wonderful form of therapy despite all that you are going through. You have wonderful stamina for your blood counts to continue to hold to get your treatments and get to see that number continuing to drop. I hope that nausea is easing up for this round so you can enjoy the gardening even more.
    Annie

    Five down
    Wow, Ro, you accomplished a lot already and it sounds like the chemo is doing its job. Sorry to hear it has not been without major stumbling blocks, but you have indeed stumbled over them one more time.

    My hat's off to you. I know how much you dreaded doing this again. Thank you so much for letting us know how it's going for you.

    Enjoy your garden on your good days. Hope this chemo is behind you soon and you can have more good days.

    Suzanne
  • LizGrrr
    LizGrrr Member Posts: 127 Member
    One day at a time
    While not pleasant, it sounds like you're soldiering through this round as well as can be expected. Hang in there and enjoy those good days.

    Hugs,
    Liz in Dallas
  • daisy366
    daisy366 Member Posts: 1,458 Member
    LizGrrr said:

    One day at a time
    While not pleasant, it sounds like you're soldiering through this round as well as can be expected. Hang in there and enjoy those good days.

    Hugs,
    Liz in Dallas

    Hugs to you Ro
    <<<Hugs to you, Ro>>>> So sorry this is such a rough treatment for you.

    Mary Ann