I progressed through the typical side-effects for the first five days - very slight nausea, a bit of fatigue, food tasted funny for a few days. The typical description for "food tasting funny" is that you experience a metallic taste your mouth when eating. I described it to my doctor that it felt like I was eating a lemon and my entire mouth puckered - tongue, mouth, throat, and every single salivary gland. As it turns out, the medicine actually messes up your ability to sense proportions between sweet and sour tastes. Annoying, but tolerable.
By Friday, I was feeling great and enjoyed a fantastic weekend. We met up with friends at the Lancaster Airport Community Days and all of our kids were in their glory with the planes. Afterwards, we all went out for dinner and then retreated back to our house for a campfire, s'mores, several glasses of wine, and some very entertaining conversation. Sunday was my annual family reunion at a local park and the weather was absolutely perfect! I was, and will continue to be, determined to not let my health slow us down anymore than absolutely necessary.
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| Lancaster Airport Community Days |
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| Lancaster Airport Community Days |
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| Lancaster Airport Community Days |
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| Family Reunion |
Partway through the family reunion, I started to experience heartburn. (Well, at least that's what I thought it was.) By Monday morning, the "heartburn" had progressed to my stomach. It continued to get worse and by Tuesday morning I decided that it was time to call the doctor. I was very worried because I was scheduled to have my second treatment that afternoon and nothing seemed to be helping with the pain. ...and by pain, I mean a doubled-over in bed, feeling like I was having labor contractions every 90 seconds kind of pain. It was awful! I was miserable, grumpy, scared, resentful, angry, and in pain.
My doctor immediately cancelled my second treatment and called in a prescription for pain meds. I had all intentions of posting an update at that point, but I essentially slept for the next three days. I think this was partially from the pain meds, but also from being tired from treatment, exhaustion from dealing with the pain for several days, and feeling devastated that I wouldn't be able to continue with this treatment. I understand now that my pain was caused by the effect Navelbine has on nerves. It is referred to as "peripheral neuropathy" and often affects the hands and feet. This is because the longer a nerve is, the more vulnerable it is to injury and the nerves going to the hands and feet are some of the longest in the body. In my case, it was the nerves surrounding my stomach were affected. Once a nerve is damaged, it likely to start behaving abnormally. It may become quiet and send no information, which causes numbness or, as in my case, it may send excessive and inappropriate pain messages. This condition happens in less than 2% of patients and, for me, would most-likely occur after each treatment of Navelbine. Of all the things for me to excel at, of course it had to be rare side-effects, right?
By Friday, I was able to stop taking the pain meds and was back to normal by Saturday. Well, physically back to normal, but I was a mess emotionally because I had no idea what my next option was for treatment. All I knew is that I had to be pain-free for at least a week before I could start any new treatment.
After another week of waiting, we decided that my next treatment will be a combination of two drugs called Gemcitabine and Carboplatin. This is commonly referred to as "GemCarbo. In my doctor's words, "I hope this will work well with limited side effects." I had my first treatment today and am nervously awaiting side-effects.
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| Encouraging quote sent to me by a good friend the day of my first chemo treatment. Words to live by!! |
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