No More Drips!

I don’t want to be alarmist, but I almost died during chemo 10 days ago.

I went into Stanford at about 10 am on Friday, May 2nd and for the initial 2 hours, I was given anti-nausea drugs and drugs to relax me (and help me forget about the chemo experience). At around noon, they started to administer the chemo drip.

About 20 minutes after beginning, my hands started itching like crazy and I began to have trouble swallowing. I was pretty mellow thanks to the earlier drugs and didn’t think much about it. Then, my face started feeling funny and I began to have trouble breathing. It finally occurred to me that I should probably call the nurse (I was in a private room and Pat had gone to grab lunch).

Next thing I know all hell broke loose. Nurses were rushing around me, the chemo drip was abruptly turned off, oxygen was placed over my nose and someone was giving me an injection of Benadryl and steroids into my port.

Apparently, my face was very swollen and my lips had turned blue. I was having a very serious allergic reaction and headed for anaphylactic shock.

Now I know why they said they would administer my chemo regimen for 16 treatments or until I had problems with the therapy!

I asked when I could come back to try this chemo treatment again. Their response was that I wasn’t going to be doing the chemo drip anymore since I could die if they tried again.

I thought they were being overly dramatic, but Dr. Fisher later told me the same thing. So – instead of the drip, I now will take 7 chemo pills per day for 7 days and then take a week off to allow my body to heal from the chemo. I will continue this routine for the next three months if my body can handle it.

To be honest, although a huge part of me is relieved never to see the infusion center again (it is such a depressing place), I am a little worried about not hitting this cancer with everything that is out there. Dr. Fisher said that he was not concerned, since the first 3-4 months really are the most important. As I mentioned in a previous update, there is actually a study in Italy that will likely change the chemo protocol from 6 months to 3 months because it will prove that there is no difference in the outcome.

I have heard from cancer survivors that one of the scariest moments is when you go off of chemo, because then it’s just “you” who is fighting off any recurrence of cancer. To a certain degree, I am experiencing the same fear, since I have one less drug that’s taking on my cancer. I’ve decided that I just have to let go of the fear and place my faith in Dr. Fisher and his marvelous team at Stanford (as well as my magnificent acupuncturist).

Once I understood the severity of what happened, I was very upset and concerned. I didn’t realize that I was in any real danger taking the chemo drip—I should have had a clue since the oncology nurses are extremely careful when handling the chemo drugs. This experience has been another reminder of my mortality. But with the information available to me today, I continue to have faith that I’m battling this from every angle and that later this summer I will move into an entirely new, cancer-free world!