May 10, 2011

No chemo yesterday

My while blood cell counts were too low for me to receive chemotherapy yesterday. I need to stay away from large groups of people to prevent exposure to an infection. My friend D sat and visited for an hour while I waited for the lab results; it always feels better to have company.

After leaving the treatment center, I went straight to Dr G's office to receive my monthly injection of Xgeva, the new bone strengthening drug I've been getting instead of Zometa. I told the nurse about my week of symptoms (stupid, fatigue, runny nose and that on-the-edge-of-feeling vertigo), and Dr G came in to talk with me. Between the stupidity (which sometimes gets call "chemo brain") and the not-quite sense of vertigo, he wanted to rule out the possibility of brain metastases and ordered a brain MRI, which I haven't had in a while.

I did a little research and found that vertigo (also called Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo or BPPV), can be related to treatment with gemcitabine, the chemo I just finished. Read here for more information.

So I get an extra week to recover and feel better, I'll have the brain MRI on Friday, and get the results next Tuesday.

I also learned that the Abraxane/Avastin combo is given in this order:
Abraxane on days 1, 8, 15 (of a 21 day cycle)
Avastin on days 1 and 15 (of a 21 day cycle)

I like having more information!

2 comments:

  1. Amazing blog, amazing lady. I am humbled.
    Massive hugs and lots of love
    K xxx

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  2. Wishing you success in your treatments. Beat cancer! I truly hope that you are very much on the way of recovery.

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