Day 62 | Bald Heads and Second AC Chemo

Bald Heads

I'm sure some of you saw that I shaved my head. I was shedding a little more, and friends of mine had my house deep cleaned pre-chemo (a very big treat - thanks Miguel and Mar!). I came home to a very clean house and thought, I just can't shed all over this nice, clean house. 

So, my dear, darling boyfriend went to Target, bought clippers, and shaved my head on the front porch. Most people say they cry the whole way through the buzzing, but he kept me laughing the whole time.

Life's not too bad as a baldie.

You get a lot of fun hats....

But your head does get colder, so the hats are necessary. Even inside sometimes. 

AC Round Two

Side Effects | What to Expect 

I also got a second treatment on Wednesday, Feb. 1. Apparently, the whole cycle will start again. I should expect the same side effects...The only side effect that's supposed to build is fatigue, which luckily wasn't too bad the last 3 weeks.  

They've assured me that the side effects that I experienced during Round 1 were really weird / never been heard of before. So, it's possibly that I'll get all the same stuff in the same order - tummy, legs, mouth sores - but, it's also possible that the tummy / legs were unrelated. Mouth sores / headaches / sore throat are part of the game. 

....I'm not sure that I really believe that the tummy / legs are unrelated, but here's hoping for the best.

Treatment Recap

Treatment itself was much better this time - I had a sweet angel nurse named Keri. She poked me ONCE (only ONCE) and was able to use my good, perfect arm vein, avoiding all the swollen-ness and pain / track marks in my wrist/hand veins (below).

With the IV securely in place, not hurting, sweet angel nurse Keri started my meds. 

So, med recap. It goes -

1. Labs - Blood draw, 5ish mins - Are your counts okay today? Can your body handle another round of chemo? What's your liver doing? Etc. 
2. Fluids | Saline Drip - 10ish mins
3. Anti-Nausea | Steroid - Injected into the saline, 5ish mins
4. Anti-Nausea | Emend - Separate drip, 20-30 mins
5. Anti-Nausea | Aloxi - Injected into the saline, 5ish mins
6. Fluids | Saline Drip - Clearing the line to prep the vein for the chemo, 30ish mins
7. Labs | Reading, ensuring all's clear before starting the chemo
8. Chemo | Doxorubicin / Adriamycin (the red stuff) - Injected into saline, 15-45ish mins because they need to ensure they have a good blood return on the vein
9. Chemo | Cyclophosphamide - Separate bag, run over 45m - 1.5h (mine was 1.5h)....this one gives me an instant headache that feels like you've taken Afrin after a bad sinus infection. You need to take a Tylenol halfway through the treatment to stop the headache.

During #8, I mentioned that you have to eat ALL the popsicles. This freezes your mouth cells, making them less susceptible to mouth sores. This time, Keri the angel nurse went faster (45m last time, 15m this time). I ate 8 orange popsicles this time. I tried to eat them a little more frozen, which seems to have protected my throat more this time. 

Oh, and the whole appointment is super long. Mom, dad, and I arrived at 11:15AM, and left close to 6PM. So, we "had" to order a pizza to the chemo room. 

Big thanks to my parents for sticking around all day, keeping me company, and keeping me in good spirits despite the long waits. 

After chemo, we all went to pasta dinner. Post-carbo-loading was necessary after the long day.

Day After Treatment 

Today, I feel a little flu-ish. Woke up with a massive headache and sore stomach around 8AM. Drank a big water, and went back to sleep till 10:30. Woke up, mom made me some toast and soup, took the steroids prescribed for 4 days after chemo, and laid back down a while. 

I was able to eat a normal dinner - sushi sounded good, so we got takeout. 

Bed now at 10PM. Crazy night with Amazon TV. =) 

In the celebration of small successes - this means that I am almost halfway finished with Chemo Type 1!!!!

Thanks for reading. Hoping the three weeks till next treatment are less eventful, but I'll write when there's something news-y....which we're hoping isn't till 2.22, when we're prepping for chemo ROUND THREE.