Last week was pretty busy, plenty of ups and downs (mostly downs, admittedly!)
On Monday sis and I went to the head office of Alex Perry (designer of stunning dresses for the non-Aussies / non-interested) as organized by the lovely people at SC Johnson to pick out a glam frock to wear to a premiere event (event TBD). It was lots of fun (even if all the samples were size 8 and therefore only fit one boob!) especially since it was Josh Flinn, model mentor from australia's next top model, looking after us :) Unfortunately I couldn't get the dress that I wanted in my size, so I need to go to the retail store, but I'm looking forward to that too!
On Tuesday, I saw the oncologist and got the scan results back - not unexpected, but not good news - the liver mets have worsened and I have multiple bone mets too (chest, ribs, back, hips), so the tablet Chemo is not working, or at least it is not doing enough. So on Wednesday it was back to the hospital for more IV Chemo - I am now on carboplatin + gemcitabine, once a week for two weeks then a week off. I was also given an IV bone treatment called Zometa, which tries to slow down cancer growth in the bones and strengthen them - I'll get this treatment every three weeks. We managed to get the IV in the hand this time, but I am scheduled to get a port put in to make the IV process easier going forward.
I have been in some pain, especially at night, particularly in my lower back and legs. I was getting up during the night to have a bath to try to ease the aches and pains, and struggling during the day to walk normally and get on with life, even with the pain medication that I had. So when on thursday the oncologist called to check that everything was ok, she suggested going into palliative care for a few days to get the pain under control and come up with a plan to manage it going forward. I agreed that if Thursday night wasn't any better I would go to the hospital on the Friday to check in (as if it is a hotel or something!)
Thursday night wasn't any better, another 4am bath, so at 10am Friday I got myself in a chemo bed until I got a bed in the oncology ward at about 5pm. Pain control was via morphine injections (via a "butterfly" into a vein on my stomach) every 4 hours and then whenever I felt I needed it, plus medication to deal with the joyous side effect of morphine - constipation. Every four hours means every four hours, even during the night, so I was being injected at midnight and 4am. The first 24 hours included vital signs monitoring every four hours too - getting blood pressure, temparature etc taken at 4am isn't highly recommended. Especially when the nurse is up for a chat, when to be honest I would really be rather sleeping. I'm a sensitive little soul too, well I must be, because I found the seemingly endless noise (IV machines beeping became a personal favourite) to be a form of torture. It was also decided that I needed to be kept in until Tuesday in order to determine the necessary doses of painkiller then transition to the "at home" method - patches (like nicotine ones for those giving up smoking). I think on the Monday I must have looked like I was about to cry in my sleep-deprived state when they said I needed to stay another day, so I did get a private room for the last night, which was an infinite improvement on being on the ward. Overall, I can recommend the RPA for their care (the food isn't bad either!), should anyone be wondering.
So, I'm back home now, with a pain medication plan that seems to be working.
In other news, I was supposed to have chemo yesterday but my white blood cell / platelet counts were too low so my body couldn't do it, so it has been postponed until next week. Also, I'm getting my port put in tomorrow (a plastic ring that sits under your skin and provides access straight into the vein). Not looking forward to having it done, even the information leaflet description is a bit gruesome, but I can see the advantage of not running out of places to put needles, since it seems that there will be a few more of those in my future...
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