Week 2 Update

Hi everyone,

Well it has been another rough week for us. We went into this week expecting the side effects to be less because we eliminated the Erbitux and we cut the other drugs back by half. You would think that this would result in less side effects right? Well not exactly…I am just as nauseous this week as I was the week after the first session. I was unable to work on  Mon and today (Tuesday) and all I can do is crawl into bed and pull the covers up  and wait for it to get better. The one thing we did NOT discuss with the doctor was the dosage for the pump that I wear for 48 hours after the chemo session. I guess it is possible that this dosage is too high and we need to reduce it as well.  All things considered I am surprised and confused as to why this is hitting me so much worse than the first time. It could be that my neuropathy is making the side effects much more painful but it just seems very odd to me that I tolerated the regimen so well the first time and I am so completely wiped out by it this time.  We will be talking to the doctor again before session #3 and we will see what he has to say.

 

Even though we eliminated the Erbitux, the rash that it caused is still there. It  seems to subside and almost disappear and then without any warning it will flare up and I will have a red acne-like rash all over my face. It  happened today and it really is ugly looking and painful too. So I will need to watch that also. I have to believe that it won’t be permanent after only 1 session but I am leery of any side effect after the battle I have had to go through with the neuropathy which is now a permanent problem for me.

Well that is about all I can tell you about Week #2. I expected better results than I got and I am going to talk to the doctor about reducing the dosage yet again.

So for me it’s back to bed and waiting for the nausea to go away.

Peace and Love to all of you.

John and Carol