Pears and Daisies
Nausea? Complete exhaustion? Adversion to even common smells? Negative appetite? Other unpleasant side effects? Check plus!! The one I didn't figure on is why I'm throwing up. They told me that I was unlikely to have any side effects, and vomiting isn't even on the LIST. I'm now wearing sea-sickness-prevention bands on my wrists which my aunt El gave me. Hey, I'm willing to try almost anything.I can't get over how the compazine affects me. I feel pretty good when I wake up. I take the pill--to help prevent nausea--just before I leave for the hospital and I feel fine all through the procedure. On the drive home, however, I am OUT like a light. It's only an hour commute and each of the past three days I've fallen asleep.
Frankly, I'm amazed how fast EVERYTHING has hit me. I'm on the "easier" path for the study I signed up for and I can't imagine how violently ill I'd be if I'd been selected for the more difficult path. It's incapacitating. I sleep all day, and when I'm awake I feel crappy. I'm looking forward to having the bag/pump chemo next month because it must be much, much lighter than what I'm on now. A reprieve!
I have tripled my already brimming respect for people who work while undergoing chemotherapy. I know it wouldn't be a matter of work being a "good distraction" for me. It would be completely impossible. I was talking to my mom about how it could be possible for some people to work, and she reminded me that each patient reacts differently. "Comparing two chemo patients is like comparing pears and daisies." My mom can be very funny. :)
I'm trying to keep the IV site dry, which is impossible because the port-a-cath incision site has chosen this week to start draining. Nice! At least it doesn't hurt. I'm very thankful that with all of my side effects there isn't pain like I had after surgery.
Oh, here is what my IV looks like with the dressing on it...
Really, it doesn't hurt. It's just bulky and a nuisance. (Do you like my yellow jammies? :) )So on the nana update, she's home now. We're all kind of confused as to why, but it was definitely her doctor's decision. She didn't have a stress test or an angioplasty or anything else. She went from ICU to the car. No middle ground. I'm glad she's happy though, she's just thrilled to be home!
As for me, three down, two to go! And I'm free of the IV on saturday. (Tina, you might have to prop my head up for our card-making class!)
posted by Jen at
9:04 PM
6 comment(s):
I love your jammies, Jen! Sorry to hear that the chemo is having its unpleasant side effects. Maybe you can think of it this way. . . the chemo MUST be working if you are feeling lousy. It is getting everything. Now you can look forward to a reprieve for a few weeks. Have a good weekend Jen and have fun at your class. Love, Kelly B.
By
Anonymous, at
10/14/2005 4:37 PM
I am sending some hugs to you for your bravery......
By
SooHK, at
10/14/2005 9:22 PM
I keep thinking that way too - the sicker I am, the better it is working. Small comfort I know when others aren't sick or whacked out by it, but hey, we are queens...*grin*
I so KNOW that nausea at the smells bit too - amazing how smell and taste completely changes?! Just keep resting and 'this too shall pass'.
Thinking of you,
Minerva
By
Minerva, at
10/15/2005 5:58 AM
Fitz, I thought that last side effect only lasted through the adolescent years...
Well, at least that's one thing Jen won't have to worry about.
By
Anonymous, at
10/16/2005 11:49 PM
I hated Compazine. It pretty much did the same thing to me. You could also try Phenegring and see if that one is any better for you.
As for me, the Compazine made me LOOPY and the Phenegrin knocked me OUT COLD. So, I just got both and used whatever one I was needing at the time. lolol
You have to plan everything around the side effects. It's sad to say it but you will get the hang of it and it won't be so bad. It sucks, yes, but it will get easier.
By
Anonymous, at
10/18/2005 1:49 AM
Hi. I never tried compazine, but anything in the "Zine"family is likely to be similer. A heavy tranquilizer, not pleasant (and thus seldom abused) and normaly prescribed only to scitzephrenics, as it seems to control theire halucinations, sometimes at the expense of making them into kind of dull, sluggish people (when they don't cheat and go off them or mix them with uppers that conteract the effects.)
I went through a phase as a trash can drug abuser where I would pretty much take any pill put in front of me, but even I didn't like that stuff. Thorazine made me feel like I was swimming in heavy syrup (I took uppers to try to cancel that out.) Melaril was horrible. All I could do was go home and curl into a ball for about twenty four hours. On top of that, when I beat off, I had an orgasm but nothing came out. If I hadn't read about that weird side effect of Melaril, I would have freaked out.
The only one I took more than once was Stelazine, the mildest of the family. But after a couple of days on that, I started to have muscle cramps, first in my hands (I was walking down the street with my wrist down like a stereotype of a gay guy. I thought I might get beaten up, but couldn't stop it.) Then, in my face and jaw. It was one of the most painful things I've ever experianced.
Later, when I got clean, I did some volenteer wrok with the mentaly ill and started to study the effects of the drugs (ther than as a reckless guinea pig.) Aparently, the side effects of painful muscle cramps and weird muscle movements are common. That sometimes includes everything described in the last post, including the slow walk called the "Thorazine shuffle" the rapid blinking, and the weird "Fly catching" movements of the tounge. If temporary, like mine, they are called Pseudo parkinsonian symptoms." With long term use, they can sometimes become permanent.
Now, picture the dilema for the mentaly ill person. Somebody who comes across as "not all there" to start with. Now add these weird muscular movements, facial expressions, etc. They can come across as weirder than they did before.
People who are on these drugs are generaly given "Artane" or "congentan" as well, to counter these side effects.
I had heard that some times they are also prescribed to cancer pateints.
Anyway, I'm not telling you all this to freak you out when you already have stuff to worry about. Just to let you know something about the possible effects of this family of drugs, so that you can be on the look out for them. If they start to show up, you can either switch meds, or at least ask for the side effect control medications as well.
At least you will know why they are happening.
Good luck.
By
Anonymous, at
4/09/2006 2:40 AM
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