Chemotherapy Session 5 Ba Boom Ba Boom Ba Boom Ba Ticky Boom

 

Friday 25 September 2020

Chemotherapy Session 5  Ba Boom Ba Boom Ba Boom Ba Ticky Boom

My body is not playing ball. My bloods last Monday were not good enough to withstand a full chemo session. I had another bloods taken in Wednesday morning just in case I made a miraculous recovery. Alas still not quite up to scratch. Then the consultant came up with the brilliant idea of just giving me the 2 drugs that don't demand my bloods to be 100 percent. The Bevacizumab (the maintenance one) and the Carboplatin that takes 30 minutes to go through.

The nurses were a bit concerned because last time I had the maintenance one I had a bit of a memory lapse. We discussed that the memory lapse had happened once before after I had had blood taken. I became light headed and forgot some words. Both times I recovered after a minute or so.

Then there was a chat about my veins ha ha. The first time the nurse had said “Oh what lovely veins”. I brought their attention to a vein in my left arm that was a bit tight. Even though it was much better now it was not quite normal. They said that there is sometimes a case of Phlebitis (an inflamation or damage to walls of the vein) after chemo has passed through it. This is what I had in my left arm. We chose to go with the right arm. After a while of solution going through they noticed a little lump forming just after the needle. They did not like that vein any more and chose another one. Who would have thought my veins could be so fickle?

All set to go. All was well till about half way through I had a bit of a hot flush and my heart started beating faster. I left it for a while to see if it would calm down but in the end I told them my heart was racing. They got the blood pressure machine and temperature gun and then did an ECG on me. All was OK BUT they could tell my heart rhythm was a bit erratic. Calming down but then speeding up again. The doctor said that when my heart was going a bit faster it would sometimes add in an extra beat. They stopped the treatment for about an hour whilst talking to the consultant and deciding what to do. By this time I had calmed down and I was all for carrying on. All those rhythmic syncopations I revel in as a musician weren't doing me any favours!

Luckily it was ok to carry on and I finished my treatment. My heart is obviously struggling to cope with all these chemicals pumping around my body. Blimey last time it was my memory and my lungs and now its my heart! Luckily I have only one more session left. I wonder what part of the body might start complaining next, my left buttock, my right jawbone, my brain? The mind boggles.

The day after chemo I wake at 4.30 am with my whole torso in a dull ache. I get up and take some paracetamol get a hot water bottle, read for a while then drift off to sleep. Spend the day hugging a hot water bottle and taking paracetamol. 2 days after chemo I have rosiy cheeks again but the dull ache has lessened.

The human body is extraordinary. I had totally forgotten what the pain felt like. I'm not even sure it is the same kind of pain I had last time. I know it is different from the original pain that led me to get treatment. It is like a colour that has been smudged and blurred, sometime more intense in one area than another. Perhaps I am so eager to forget the pain once it goes I just erase it from my memory.