She did get quite a bit better during her first break. She wasn't able to completly come off the morphine because the chemos had sent her body into menapause and the doctor couldn't give her anything to help. A bit of morphine at night kept the hot flashes down and allowed her to get some sleep. She got to the point where she didn't need any of it during the day. She wanted to do some extra things while she was feeling better, like travel and see her family but her boss refused to give her any time off because she had taken off so much time for chemotherapy. The one thing she was able to do was to get some professional pics done. She loved professional pictures and we hadn't had them done since our wedding. The picture is of Dee and I a few months after she had finished chemo (she is in the front). She was happy and we were trying to live as full of lives as we could during that time.Tuesday, July 13, 2010
After Chemotherapy
Life doesn't just go back to normal after chemotherapy is over. In Dee's case she still had weekly labs for the first month and she had monthly CT Scans for the first couple of months. The doctors were just waiting for the rhabdomyosarcoma to come back and since they couldn't find where it started, they were at least hoping to catch it when it first spread to the lymph nodes. Then there was the chance that it wouldn't spread the same way that it had the first time so they were just trying to keep an eye on everything. Dee's boss wanted her to start back at work as soon as the chemotherapy was over. She (her boss) kept harrassing her but the doctor's knew she was really weak and that her system was very weak so it would've been devestating if she had gotten a cold or worse. Finally Dee's boss didn't give her choice. Even though she was out because of doctor's orders, her boss said come back now at least part time or you won't have a job. So working with the doctor's they set up a three days a week schedule for four hours a day. Dee was still on morphine for pain and she was still pretty weak so she couldn't drive herself back and forth to work. After a couple of weeks her boss demanded that she move to five days a week at four hours a day or else she would be fired. Then her boss got mad at her for having to go to CT Scans or any other type of doctor's appointment during that four hours. It was because of her boss's refusal to allow her to go to doctor's appointments during work that Dee's cancer went to stage four in the first place and I was having a hard time dealing with her boss holding her job over her head in an attempt to keep her from her appointments again. She liked everyone at work besides her boss and on her good days, she liked being able to work again plus she knew that the insurance was vital so she kept on working.
She did get quite a bit better during her first break. She wasn't able to completly come off the morphine because the chemos had sent her body into menapause and the doctor couldn't give her anything to help. A bit of morphine at night kept the hot flashes down and allowed her to get some sleep. She got to the point where she didn't need any of it during the day. She wanted to do some extra things while she was feeling better, like travel and see her family but her boss refused to give her any time off because she had taken off so much time for chemotherapy. The one thing she was able to do was to get some professional pics done. She loved professional pictures and we hadn't had them done since our wedding. The picture is of Dee and I a few months after she had finished chemo (she is in the front). She was happy and we were trying to live as full of lives as we could during that time.
She did get quite a bit better during her first break. She wasn't able to completly come off the morphine because the chemos had sent her body into menapause and the doctor couldn't give her anything to help. A bit of morphine at night kept the hot flashes down and allowed her to get some sleep. She got to the point where she didn't need any of it during the day. She wanted to do some extra things while she was feeling better, like travel and see her family but her boss refused to give her any time off because she had taken off so much time for chemotherapy. The one thing she was able to do was to get some professional pics done. She loved professional pictures and we hadn't had them done since our wedding. The picture is of Dee and I a few months after she had finished chemo (she is in the front). She was happy and we were trying to live as full of lives as we could during that time.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
5 Months of Chemotherapy
After spending most of June in the hospital Dee still had 5 months of chemotheraphy to look forward to. The weeks rotated depending on the cycle so that on some weeks she only had to go in for chemotheraphy on Monday. Then there were the hard weeks that she had to have chemo everyday but they were typically followed by a week where she only had to go in for blood tests. Depending on which of the four chemos she was getting some weeks she felt almost normal.
One of the drugs that made her sicker than any of the chemotheraphies was actually supposed to protect her stomach from one of the chemos. The first time she had to take it at home in pill form, she was sick within the hour. She spiked a fever and she couldn't keep anything down so she couldn't even take the next pills that she was suppose to have. Since she had just gotten out of the hospital the fever and throwing up really freaked us out. We went to the ER and they ran all these blood tests and cultures to see what was wrong. She ended up having to spend a few days in the hospital because the chemo had lowered her white cells again. They couldn't find anything so I started researching this new pill she had taken. I found out that it was being tested as a chemo drug in Europe which told me that it was a pretty nasty drug. Also the rare side effects were fevers and vomiting. After the trip to the ER happened the next time, we got the doctors to give her the drug intravenously which helped because she no longer had the vomiting. By then we also knew what over-the-counter meds the ER used to fight the fever so we just kept a log of her temperatures and gave her the meds at home. She hated going to the ER and being stuck in the hospital so this made her feel a lot better.
The chemotheraphy didn't get any easier as time went on, it got worse. Her bone marrow bounced back real good most weeks but every so many weeks her red blood cells would get so low that she had to have a transfusion. She had to have the white blood cell shots every couple of weeks and those always caused her a lot of pain as the bone marrow increased white blood cell production.
One of the drugs that made her sicker than any of the chemotheraphies was actually supposed to protect her stomach from one of the chemos. The first time she had to take it at home in pill form, she was sick within the hour. She spiked a fever and she couldn't keep anything down so she couldn't even take the next pills that she was suppose to have. Since she had just gotten out of the hospital the fever and throwing up really freaked us out. We went to the ER and they ran all these blood tests and cultures to see what was wrong. She ended up having to spend a few days in the hospital because the chemo had lowered her white cells again. They couldn't find anything so I started researching this new pill she had taken. I found out that it was being tested as a chemo drug in Europe which told me that it was a pretty nasty drug. Also the rare side effects were fevers and vomiting. After the trip to the ER happened the next time, we got the doctors to give her the drug intravenously which helped because she no longer had the vomiting. By then we also knew what over-the-counter meds the ER used to fight the fever so we just kept a log of her temperatures and gave her the meds at home. She hated going to the ER and being stuck in the hospital so this made her feel a lot better.
The chemotheraphy didn't get any easier as time went on, it got worse. Her bone marrow bounced back real good most weeks but every so many weeks her red blood cells would get so low that she had to have a transfusion. She had to have the white blood cell shots every couple of weeks and those always caused her a lot of pain as the bone marrow increased white blood cell production.
Still she was in great spirits when her last day of chemo came along and it was a good day for her. Here is a picture of us on her last day of chemo in 2006. I had broken four bones in my foot the day before which is why I'm in a wheelchair.
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