I guess a happy new year is in order, but before then I had my chemo, bendamustine on Monday and Tuesday, there were no issues with it and it only takes about 30mins for this one to go in. The bendamustine from what I have read seems to set a marker on the cells that need to be destroyed and then your body and obinutuzumab target these cells and destroy them.
The counts haven’t particularly dropped with getting this and am still able to function pretty well. The best part is I don’t need to have peritin with this one which I initially thought I did and I was able to read and focus on things rather than being drowsy and falling asleep all day.
That was all grand until Wednesday morning when I started getting a tingly sensation, similar to one I get when the platelets are low or I’m coming down with something. This lasted all day and was just gradually getting worse and a sore head too and generally starting to feel unwell. My tummy was also playing up, I didn’t think it was anything to do with the chemo to start but looking back it probably was, although the tummy might be to do with eating so much of late, I’m still not 100% sure on that one.
My temp never properly went up on Tuesday only into the 37s until the late evening of course as normal when the doctors are all away. The procedure is to take blood cultures and start on antibiotics, but when giving me the antibiotics I started to feel funny in the head and raised the back of the bed, heart started to pound and race up to 140-150bpm and then my hands got tingly and itchy…
I’d experienced reactions like this before with blood products but wasn’t expecting it to happen on an antibiotic that I’ve had about 7 or 8 courses over the last 3 months. Thankfully the nurse was with me at the time and the doctor was still around to prescribe some peritin which done the trick to settle it and with them being there it was sorted quickly. The whole thing seemed to make my head more painful, better than the alternative though. That night the temperature wouldn’t go below 38 as I’m still only getting the half dose of paracetamol and it wasn’t until the next morning around 6 or 7 that it finally crept below 38.
The antibiotic was changed to another with no reactions, it’s over a 30 minute period whereas the other is given as an injection. I feel like it was given too quickly which is what caused it, it’s supposed to be over about 5 mins, it was more like 30 seconds.
The Thursday I picked up on the feeling like something was coming on and the tingliness settled but my tummy didn’t, (Stool talk the rest of the paragraph) I’ve had IBS and stomach lesions a fair few times before and was very like that hence why I think this was caused by eating too much rather than the chemo. I’d been having diarrhea for a few days but the doctors never told the nurses and when I mentioned to them they wanted a sample and of course, I don’t go for the rest of the day. When I did there was a lot and solid, then another not quite as solid and then another which they thought was soft enough to send off to get tested. It was just getting more and more fluid-like until it was basically water. What was passed probably about 3 days worth, which eased the tummy a bit but then I was constantly running to the loo.
Friday morning I was told that I’d be moving to my own room, mostly precautionary but with another rotten sleep and the beeps, snores and now talking in their sleep I was happy enough with this.
Oh yes, also on Thursday my blog was locked due to violation of terms, they never informed me of why or what I’d done for this to happen nor did they even tell me, it was one of you guys that told me about it and I wasn’t able to access any of the posts or view the pages. I wasn’t overly keen on losing any of this as it has been going for over 6 years(with a break in the middle). I appealed and it was restored the next day, it was a warning shot and so I’ve downloaded all the blogs and made backups of them.
Most importantly of all, it’s gave me a new project to add the blog to my own server so that it can’t be removed and I can’t violate terms of service, only issue is downtime and it will be a bit slower, but I don’t mind that.
Back to Friday, I’ve been moved to the luxury ensuite room, the windows point out the West side of the building looking both NW and SW, so far in my stay I’ve only been looking NE on either the East or North of the building so new scenery. The room is massive compared to where I was, but I’ve barely moved from the bed or toilet.
Friday and Saturday my tummy continued to play up. They took me off the antibiotics to see if I was still getting the temperatures and to check if my stomach would settle and on Saturday I got the all-clear of any infections and could get tablets to try and help. My stomach was also making me feel nauseous so I was given tablets for that but they can make you constipated so a double-edged sword. I pondered for a while before saying I’ll go on them but would probably be better if I wasn’t.
Sunday I was working on the new blog, it’s got the essentials there now and all the older posts which is more than ample. My stomach seems to have been pretty good today and everything was all pretty uneventful. I was allowed to leave the room again today, I had planned to go for walk around the hospital but that never happened and the later evening my stomach started to get pretty bad again, a laydown and a wee trip helped and got more tablets for it too.
And here I am at 4am typing this, not tired though, but I know I should at least try to sleep. Tomorrow… today I’m getting the obinutuzumab and will have peritin so I expect to be sleeping most of the day anyway. One doctor had said something about getting an extra dose of something but I didn’t really hear and the other said about possibly not (at different times), I’m more keen on getting the extra butI don’t know the full effects so I’ll take their advice before mine.