Monday, February 13, 2012

info overload

I'm a bit exhausted right now. I just took a little nap after being at the cancer center for about 4 hours! I'm going to try fill in what happened in those four hours but my brain is a little hazy so I might have to go back and edit later or add another post.
After a 2 hour wait, I met Dr. Gore. He was friendly and exuberant with his lavender tie. He apologized for the wait, he needed to talk to my surgeon, Dr. Barnes, before seeing me... but the surgeon was in surgery. I'd already had blood drawn and a physical exam done by his nurse practitioner, "Scooter," and was deemed healthy. Dr. Gore warned that with chemo sometimes comes neuropathy (damage to the nerves in my hand and feet) but he made it sound like this wasn't likely to be permanent but if it gets so bad that I can't fasten a button, then it's time to call him. Another "problem" he brought up was issues with chemo possibly causing infertility, which probably has already been lowered with the type of surgery I had. He said a lot of woman get their eggs frozen but that he did not recommend this in my case, not only because of the time delay, but because the hormones they would have to give me could cause the type of cancer I have to rear it's ugly head. I told him this was not a concern for me. I didn't want to waste time fooling with egg harvesting either and that I'm pretty sure I do not want children. If I change my mind about this, I can always adopt. He told me the two types of chemo I would be getting, which were CARBOplatin and PACLitaxel. He said that this chemo would not be nearly as bad as any horror stories that I had heard and that they would do everything in their capabilities to make me comfortable. I already got sent home with antibiotics and nausea meds because they do not want to fool around with me getting sick while my white count is so low. Especially since as a diabetic, I could easily go into diabetic ketoacidosis while sick. He is also going to give me a shot to up my white count after the chemo that he would not normally give to someone getting the type of chemo I'm getting. Again, being extra cautious because of the diabetes.
I also met with some kind of pharmaceutical oncology type team. Most of what they said was just reiterating things I already knew. They gave me a list of common side effects for the type of chemo I would be having: nausea, vomiting, kidney problems, bruising, liver problems, fever, infection, poor appetite, hair loss, diarrhea, tiredness, mouth sores, anemia, and muscle cramps. Obviously with signs of those scarier sounding ones, I would call the doctor. Everyone seemed to be emphasizing to me that it would not be that horrible, so I will take them as their word.

So I show up next Monday morning at 8:15 AM to start this adventure called chemo. Between now and then I'll have my port put in and I'll see my endocrinologist.

But I better go and shower because tonight I have a date with two lovely ladies, Kathleen and Perri, at the sometimes loved (and often not so loved) Cheesecake Factory :-)

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