Saturday was another interesting day. The main goal of the day was to start post-chemo medications in the morning and then go to the cancer center at noon to get that monitored, get disconnected from the portable IV that was giving me fluids, get instruction on maintenance of my new chest catheter (left) and self-administering the neupogen injections, get any more questions we had answered (previous medications, vitamins etc.), and then go home. But we did have one slight complication. Because of my edema problem, my body was retaining the fluids instead of sending them on through. This meant my body was also retaining the chemo, which is definitely not good. Between Thursday night and Saturday morning I had gained a little over 20 pounds in water weight. The usual way to deal with it is with Lasix, but because of my previous kidney problem the doctors were a little nervous about that. However, after checking my blood counts, my kidney numbers were very good and they decided to go ahead.
The good news on this was that I got a private room with my own bathroom. They gave me 60mg of Lasix (the most I ever had before was 20mg) and, believe me, I needed the private bathroom. I was in the cancer center about 4 hours and got the Lasix about 2 hours in. Within 90 minutes I had lost over 5 pounds of water weight and they told us we could go home about 4pm. The nurse told me the Lasix would wear off in an hour or two after that. I probably dropped another pound or so on the drive back home. That was also interesting since, because I am toxic for 72 hours after chemo, I could not use any public bathrooms. I’ll stop the trip description there.
I am thankful that we are back home and I am feeling reasonably well. I am feeling a little more of the expected side effects this time, but it is really not too bad. I am thankful for the effective nausea medicine. Joyce will be poking me three times a day with a needle for the neupogen shots and I have a new chart to make sure I take all my meds (right above). I am still taking a low dose of Lasix to try to mitigate the edema which is still a problem. We’d appreciate your prayers for that. The big prayer request now is that the neupogen shots would stimulate a lot of stem cell growth and get my blood counts back up. The sooner that happens, the sooner the needed stem cells can be harvested. The second one is that I can avoid infection while my immune system is so compromised. I am pretty much house-bound except for doctor visits and have to avoid outside contact as much as possible for the next couple weeks. I appreciate your prayers and expressions of love and concern very much!
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