Chemo 1 & 2 (2018 blog posts)

 Below are a series of blog posts from my 2018 blog where I kept family and friends up to date on how things were going with Kim's chemo treatments. I share them again here as a way to set the context for some of the writing to come. 
In rereading these posts, I forgot just how bad things started out. I remember that Kim's first chemo dose in 2018 was a disaster, but my brain shut out just how traumatic it actually was. 
 

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Thursday, June 28, 2018
Chemo 1
Yesterday was Kim's first chemo treatment and things did not go well.  About 45 minutes into the first chemo drug she began to have some sort of reaction.  It started with an overall feeling of being unwell, sweating and very restless.  Then she began having problems forming some of her words.  At this point her nurse and another came over and began giving her some anti-inflammatory drugs and stopped her chemo.  These anti-inflammatory shots are supposed to act very quickly but they did nothing.  At this point Kim also starting shaking badly. 
Coincidentally her oncologist happened to be there giving Kim some regular prescriptions and she saw the whole thing happening.  Once she saw that Kim was not responding to the initial drugs they gave she told the nurse to call a code blue as she felt things were quickly escalating outside of any norm. Within seconds the code alarm went off throughout the cancer clinic and all of Surrey Memorial Hospital (Fraser Valley Cancer Clinic is in same building as SMH), and within a minute doctors, nurses and technicians came running and rolling equipment from all over the hospital...quite the scene.  At this point Kim started feeling numbness in her thighs, tingling in her feet, her right hand completely cramped up and she had problem holding her arms up as they kept slumping beside her.
Very quickly I counted 15 people standing around Kim's bed with an ER nurse and ICU doctor taking charge.  They gave her a shot of Epinephrine and after a couple minutes she slowly started to stabilize.  During this time, they wheeled two machines beside her, one an ECG, the other I don't know, and began to run those tests as well.  Her O2 states where also fluctuating so they also had to put her on oxygen.  They also moved her onto a stretcher and made arrangement to bring her down to the Emergency Department. 
Things like this are not common in the cancer clinic (her oncologist said she has never seen this before) so obviously it caused a lot of commotion and everyone was quite aware of what was happening (and you know how Kim hates being the centre of attention). 
Once stabilized on the stretcher, hooked up to O2 and saline drip, they moved her down to emerg. We got down there a little before 1pm.  She was stabilized until about 2:30pm when all the drugs started to wear off, but being in the trauma room they were quickly able to give her more anti-inflammatory drugs and steroids.  Of course, during this whole time Kim was also fighting nausea as she did still get 3/4 of her first chemo drug, and all of this left her quite exhausted. 
At about 3:30pm she stabilized again. We were moved out of the trauma room to a different observation room, where she was able to rest.  At 5:30pm the nurse called the doctor to reassess Kim. All her tests were coming back as fine and she had now been stable for 2 hours, so they let us go home, which we were more than comfortable doing. Today Kim has had a rough day, fighting nausea and an overall feeling of being unwell all day.  

So now what?  In talking with her oncologist last night and again this afternoon she says no one is willing to challenge the reaction Kim had to that chemo drug, therefore we are needing to switch her chemo medication and protocol.  As it stands right now, Kim will go back to the drug protocol she was on two years ago, plus they are going to add one more chemo drug. This means she will be on 4 chemo drugs as long as she can handle the side effects of that.  They wanted to start her next week but we called that off as yesterday has left us quite exhausted and traumatized, and so we said we would like to start in two weeks, the same time she was supposed to get her second round. 

This is obviously not an easy process and there is no inspirational message at the end of this post. This just sucks and it is hell.  

Monday, July 2, 2018
Chemo 1 Recovery
Just a quick update on how Kim is doing.  Recovery from chemo and all that happened last Wednesday has been a long and slow road.  Kim has been feeling pretty unwell and slightly nauseous all the way up to and including today.  Kim did get a good sleep last night so that is helping so far this morning. But it has been a difficult and discouraging weekend.  Kim seems to be fluctuating between nausea, being backed-up, pain in different parts of her body, and of course the regular feeling you get from being sick for a long time––there is only so much TV and sitting around you can do before even that makes you feel crappy.
We have been building a VW Bus out of Lego, so that is serving as a good distraction.  We are hoping that today is a "turning the corner day” and hopefully tomorrow can reflect some sense of normalcy. 
 
Monday, July 9, 2018
Chemo 2 Preparation 
It is amazing how fast time goes by when things are going well vs. when things are not. 
Kim has had an overall good 5-6 days.  She returned to work last Wednesday and has been able to work every day since then, including Saturday.  Kim added up her time sheet at work since her first chemo treatment and it turns out she has only had to take 1.5 sick days, which is amazing considering how poorly she was feeling.  
I should say, working this much over the past number of days has been fully her decision and she has had absolutely no pressure from her work to go back and work like this.  She has been able to work quite a bit from home on a project so that has helped a lot.  Elim, her place of work, has been so good to her.
Kim goes for chemo again on Wednesday morning.  We are feeling okay about this now but we know that tomorrow and on Wednesday morning the anxiety will begin to creep in. We don't know how the chemo will go and are a bit nervous if she could have a reaction again. She will be in the chemo chair for about 3 hours, and then comes home with the final chemo drug which infuses over 46 hours. This is the same as two years ago, but just looking at the little pouch that the chemo bottle sits in (which we still have from last time) is enough to make our stomach tighten already. 

Thursday, July 12, 2018
​Chemo 2
Kim's chemo went well yesterday.  Other than having to be there for almost 5 hours, it went well.
When we got to the cancer clinic we found out someone had made a mistake and not all her required blood work had been done, so we had to wait an hour until they could retest her blood from the day before to make sure they could go ahead. This led to more miscommunication and frustration, me raising my voice a little and showing much frustration through body language until finally an hour and 45 minutes later they hooked Kim up to her first drug. 

The first two drugs, given at the same time, take 2 hours to go in, then they gave her what is called a "push", followed by another drug which takes 20 minutes.  The "push" is a large syringe size dose of the chemo drug which they push into her I.V. line quickly, and this is the same chemo drug that she is then hooked up to right before she leaves the clinic, and this infuses over 46 hours, which she is obviously still on now.  Hopefully she will be fully able to unhook tomorrow at around lunch time.

So far the side effects seem similar to two years ago.  She is fighting some nausea and fatigue, and right away got the cold sensitivity, which is maybe the most frustrating side effect when mixed with nausea.  This means that Kim is very sensitive to anything cold, so any room temperature water needs to be heated first in the microwave, and cold air hurts to breathe (thank goodness it is summer). Later it will also affect her fingers and feet more, which the cancer clinic monitors closely as this could be long lasting if not permanent damage. Needless to say, this second round of chemo with the different drugs is going much better than the first, two weeks ago. 
The old smells and sights of the chemo bottle and hospital tape no doubt tighten Kim’s stomach and cast a bit of gloom over our home, but we are thankful that no serious reactions have happened this time.