May 7 - Rough Start
View from the infusion room
Aside from the oral chemo delivery mixup, the infusion went well. Unfortunately the oral chemo didn’t go as planned. Early Tuesday morning, early early, Colleen was vomiting and experiencing intense nausea, to the point that she felt like she couldn’t get air in or felt claustrophobic. She had to hang her head outside and get fresh air before going back to bed.
From that point we started her anti-nausea regimen (Zofran & Compazine) to hopefully counteract the feeling. It kind of helped in that she wasn’t doing any vomiting, but she had no appetite and was miserable for most of the day and into the early evening. We called Dr. Hu’s office and the nurse(?) Gordon recommended that she take Ativan, but in half doses, and to not take the Compazine. The Ativan definitely helped and she was able to get some sleep.
The leapfrogging medication schedule
This morning we went to the PolyClinic Infusion Center where she got infused some fluids and a stronger anti-nausea medication. There she talked with Dr. Hu, Colleen has to make a decision around continuing with oral or going with straight infusion. Tomorrow I think will decide it, key factors :
She needs to have eat and have full meal
Frontload with Zofran about an hour before taking the chemo
Reduce the number of oral chemo pills from 3 to 2
My comment is that this may become a quality of life issue. As much of a bummer it would be to do chemo for 6 months vs 3, at least she wouldn’t be totally miserable for up to two weeks of every month of the next 3. Fingers crossed that tomorrow will have a better result, but at the least she has options.
