Part of the reason Monday's chemo was so lengthy is that my standard of treatment is all over the map. As I understand it, the protocol is Abraxane on days 1, 8, and 15; Avastin on days 1 and 15. I think day 28 is supposed to be no treatment. But look at what actually happened!
May's cycle was close to as planned, except that my counts were too low on day 8.
2 Abraxane 1 and Avastin
9 Abraxane cancelled (low counts)
16 Abraxane 2 and Avastin
23 Abraxane 3
30 Abraxane 4 and Avastin
At the end of May/beginning of June, I was diagnosed with shingles and didn't have treatment that entire month. I had the gamma knife procedure on June 21.
July
6 Abraxane 5 (I don't have Avastin marked)
18 Abraxane 6 and Avastin
25 Abraxane 7 (again, I didn't note Avastin)
August
8 Abraxane 8 and Avastin
15 Abraxane 9 and Avastin
No wonder the nurses had trouble understanding why I questioned getting Avastin two weeks in a row! Especially since first thing I asked the lab if I needed to give a urine sample for the Avastin and they told me no, it wasn't necessary. Still, Dr G knows his stuff and he wouldn't have ordered it this way if he thought it would be a problem.
The upshot is that we had a longer day than expected. I indeed had to give a urine sample; we had to wait until the lab finished their work on it; then more waiting for the pharmacy to mix the drugs. Yesterday's chemo nurse was good about giving me the drugs out of protocol order. It was foolish for me to take up a chair while waiting for the Avastin to be prepared when the Abraxane was ready.
I still cannot get used to a 90 minute treatment taking 4.5 hours.
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Jill, I hope things become less difficult with this routine as it goes along. thank you for keeping us all posted even when I am sure you don't feel like it.
ReplyDeleteKnow the feeling, just want to go in get your chemo and go home. I go every Thursday. I have had 15 Abraxane treatments. 2 Zometa. It usually takes about an hour to hour and a half. Go home and ready for a nap. I take 3 treatments in a row and have the fourth week off and start over again with the 3. I should have my next PET Scan in the middle of Sept. Stay brave.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how you manage to keep track of all this. I look over my notes of over 10 years ago and even when taking notes all the time, I still had a hard time understanding all that was going on. You're amazing.
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