Tuesday, February 7, 2023

I’m a mouth breather, and have been for as long as I can remember and to my knowledge I never had any problems associated with it. However, since starting chemo, at night my mouth gets so dry I pretty much have to peel my upper and lower lip away from my teeth just to get my tongue loose.

Elizabeth sent me some candies meant to help with the problem. I tried them but they didn’t dissolve quickly or easily in my mouth and often left me with sores on my tongue and cheek. After that I was attempting to manage the dryness by rinsing my mouth with water and then having a drink. Because I was drinking so much during the day I was up every couple of hours to the bathroom anyway, I decided this was the best I could do.

But then we got inventive. I tried sleeping wearing a medical mask. The theory was that whatever moisture I exhaled would be inhaled on my next breath. That didn’t even last a whole night. The mask bugged me and I didn’t feel like I got any sleep.

Next we tried keeping a wet facecloth by the bed. When I woke up in the night I would suck on the cloth and get a little moisture but not so much that I needed more bathroom breaks. The method worked well until the facecloth dried up in the middle of the night.

But we were getting more ideas based on that attempt. We thought we could get a small spray bottle, fill it with water and spray water into my mouth as needed. We didn’t have a sprayer that we knew would be clean enough but then I had another idea – a child’s sippy cup. We scoured the cupboards looking for one that one of the grandkids might have left behind but had no luck. Pat bought a new, and I guess improved, one that has a straw. It was hard to get the cup tipped at the right slant so that it wasn’t a huge effort to get a drink.

After a google search it mentioned chewing sugarless gum – problem solved. I chewed half a piece when I went to bed and then just tucked it under my upper lip until I needed to chew it a bit more to get the saliva working. The gum lost its flavour in the middle of the night so I just used the other half.

From the time the chewing gum was mentioned I couldn’t get this song out of my mind:

Does your chewing gum lose its flavour on the bedpost overnight?If your mother says, don’t chew it do you swallow it in spite? Can you catch it on your tonsils? Can you heave it left and right? Does your chewing gum lose its flavour on the bedpost overnight?

Kathryn arrives late this afternoon and I can pretty much guarantee there will be no chewing gum on her bedpost.

Monday, February 6, 2023

Today’s chemo went well. Only two attempts to find a vein – she opted to put the IV in my finger. Hopefully by next time one of the more central veins will have healed enough to be used again.

The sessions this time around are going to be at least four hours. I get three meds to help with side effects and the possibility of an allergic reaction before I get to the chemo drug. And that chemo drug can’t be pushed anything short of three hours. It’s a long time in the chair but I cuddled under my ‘Hug’ blanket and listened to music on my iPod. I may have even dozed off a time or two – another of the pre-meds makes you drowsy.

I’m happy to say that I don’t have to take the steroid pill over the next few days. However one of the IV dugs was the steroid and that explains why I’m feeling so good now. I hate coming off the steroid but I like that I have some good days as a result of it.

I managed to do a bit of work on my cross stitch project this afternoon while Pat taught his guitar lessons.

Sunday, February 5, 2023

Although I’m not yet feeling “normal” I am working hard to get there. Still no appetite no matter what Pat tempts me with. When I feel like I should eat something I’m having an Ensure or a few nuts and maybe some fruit. I do eat an occasional meal. Pat made me egg and toast one morning for breakfast and that filled me for the rest of the day; today I had a bowl of oatmeal.

I know I need more exercise and we are trying to get out for walks even when the weather isn’t nice. It was rainy all morning but the sun has come out so we may get out later this afternoon. I just can’t face walking on the treadmill for some reason; if the weather doesn’t cooperate I’m going to have to get over that.

I’m not sleeping well, except for the night when I had a low-grade fever and took a couple of Tylenol. Last night, after a long walk and no naps, I didn’t sleep any better so I think that, fever or not, I’m going to take Tylenol before bed tonight as I’m already nervous about tomorrow.

Tomorrow I start my next round of chemo. A new drug with concerns about allergic reactions. Before I get the actual drug I’ll be getting several anti-allergy meds and then they watch me to see if I have any reactions. I’m not looking forward to the ordeal but once it is done it is one step closer to the end. I will have to continue with the white blood cell injections but I don’t know what additional meds I might have to have.

Onwards and upwards.

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

I had an appointment with my family doctor yesterday morning. All is fine and he had a note in his file saying they weren’t going to do my 4th chemo round but were going to move on to the second series. 

Then, late yesterday afternoon, we had a call from my doctor at the Vancouver Cancer Clinic. I’m not sure if it was my recent hospital stay but my case had been a topic for a conference. After either reviewing (or redoing) the pathology report they have decided I don’t have the more aggressive HER2 cancer.

What this means going forward is that I will get only one drug for the next four rounds of chemo rather than 3 different drugs. It also means that I won’t be needing the expensive drug we were going to pay for on our own.

I will still require the three weeks of radiation in Vancouver but following radiation I won’t require the next round of 13 chemo treatments. After radiation I think I’m done.

Thanks to everyone who has kept me in their thoughts and prayers. This is good news!