Back on track!
Well, I'm back on my way again - a successful infusion of Herceptin. It was actually a bit of a "fun" experience. It was nice to see the nurses again - the nurse who started the infusion was my first "chemo" nurse, Laura, so I have a strange affinity for her. She talked us down on the first day of chemo and has a wonderful confident manner about her that makes me believe she'll take care of whatever goes wrong.
I also talked flip-flops (no, they are no long called "thongs"!) and wigs with some fellow patients and by then I was done. Only 30 minutes! And no anti-nausea drugs to make me woozy, steroids to jack me up or antihistamines to make me sleepy. Smoooooth. Despite all of the above, I was glad to leave the place when I was done... more than ready to hop in the car for a slow, sunny, late afternoon drive home.
I'm now on schedule for Herceptin every 3 weeks and I think it's after 3 more treatments I get another MUGA scan to see how my heart is doing. Nurse Laura mentioned that there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to whose heart suffers under the Herceptin. Some older folks sail right through while otherwise fit 35 year olds can't handle it. I'm happy I can be on the treatment for at least one more round. If my heart doesn't seem happy after that, I think I might call it done. The shorter term studies show that less Herceptin might be the same as more Herceptin and I would have done as much as some of the short-term studies at that point. Time will tell!
We are finishing up our school year here at a rapid pace. The year is "officially" over in our homeschool on June 18, so we are busy ticking things off and putting them away. Always a great time. The only better time is pulling out the books in September when I think we might actually get every lesson in every book I've so carefully chosen, done. June is a time to be resigned to the fact that stuff is just not going to get finished! I hear shocking reports of what percent of textbooks actually get completed in classrooms - like less than 100% and nobody seems to take it as the travesty that we homeschool moms do. I know many of us feel like failures if we haven't done every last exercise. I'm getting over it ; ) but it's taken a looong time - like 10 years. I'm a slow learner. But maybe if I'd completed that last lesson in every school text...
I also talked flip-flops (no, they are no long called "thongs"!) and wigs with some fellow patients and by then I was done. Only 30 minutes! And no anti-nausea drugs to make me woozy, steroids to jack me up or antihistamines to make me sleepy. Smoooooth. Despite all of the above, I was glad to leave the place when I was done... more than ready to hop in the car for a slow, sunny, late afternoon drive home.
I'm now on schedule for Herceptin every 3 weeks and I think it's after 3 more treatments I get another MUGA scan to see how my heart is doing. Nurse Laura mentioned that there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to whose heart suffers under the Herceptin. Some older folks sail right through while otherwise fit 35 year olds can't handle it. I'm happy I can be on the treatment for at least one more round. If my heart doesn't seem happy after that, I think I might call it done. The shorter term studies show that less Herceptin might be the same as more Herceptin and I would have done as much as some of the short-term studies at that point. Time will tell!
We are finishing up our school year here at a rapid pace. The year is "officially" over in our homeschool on June 18, so we are busy ticking things off and putting them away. Always a great time. The only better time is pulling out the books in September when I think we might actually get every lesson in every book I've so carefully chosen, done. June is a time to be resigned to the fact that stuff is just not going to get finished! I hear shocking reports of what percent of textbooks actually get completed in classrooms - like less than 100% and nobody seems to take it as the travesty that we homeschool moms do. I know many of us feel like failures if we haven't done every last exercise. I'm getting over it ; ) but it's taken a looong time - like 10 years. I'm a slow learner. But maybe if I'd completed that last lesson in every school text...
Comments
Post a Comment
Thanks for constructive and encouraging comments!