A Detour, Scary But With Some Good Stuff

bride

I’m sorry for not having posted for so long. My early Feb chemo led to a major bout of chemo fog. It is not an experience I’d recommend. I lost entire 5 weeks worth of any sense of time, memory, and movement. It was the scariest period of my life. My fear was not lessened by the incredibly (to me) long time it has taken to recover from the chemo fog.

Adding to the chemo fog were two bothersome side effects: my first encounter with neuropathy, that nasty tingling in my fingertips and toes. I know time is the only cure. I can get by with the stuff in my fingertips more easily because the business with my toes has really screwed with my mobility.

And in the middle of this, my MO left to follow her husband to greener pastures. Fortunately, I lucked into another super MO. Together, my old MO and new MO devised a new treatment plan because there was a silver lining to all of this. The mass located below my nipple is completely gone and the one above my nipple has shrunk from 2.3 cm to .11 mm. So I’m now on an aggressive chemo routine to prep for surgery: Cytoxan (CTX), 5-FU (Adrucil), and the rather dangerous Ellence which requires me to have a cardiac echogram every 6 weeks. CTX and Ellence damage my DNA and cause cell death. 5-FU messes with an enzyme used by cancer cells to divide. I’ve only had one course of this, but, oddly enough, have had far fewer side effects. It is a pain in the butt to have drive 3+ hours round trip 2 days after chemo for a shot of Neulasta, but, with my part of Georgia having been under high pollen alerts for the last 2 months, my very drippy, red nose can already feel the difference.

The other silver lining was me finally figuring out that my massive, out-of-control diarrhea was caused, in large part, by an allergy to the lemon-lime flavored water I was guzzling. Yes, I can now proudly say that I have “normal” chemo diarrhea. LOL.

I truly have missed this forum. My absence made realize how amazingly supportive you all are.

Hopefully, I won’t face another episode like the one I’ve just been through and can reconnect with my life and with this life-lie forum

bride

Moderators

Welcome back, Bride! Glad to see you've made it out of the "fog"

bride

And a very heartfelt thank you to our Mods for all they do.

bride