Today Jesse started round 2 of the antibody. At 9am, the nurses started the chemo. By 10am, she was starting her antibody. Within 30 minutes Jesse was complaining of neck pain. We upped her morphine, but this did very little for the pain.
Over the next four hours, the nurses and I bounced different pain medicine ideas back and forth. I asked about giving her oxycodone or a longer acting pain medicine instead of the fast acting instantaneous pain medicines.
As the antibody wound down, Jesse became more itchy. The morphine has this effect on her. Between the morphine and the Benedryl we gave her for nausea and itching, we have snowed her :(. I just woke her up to pee, and she is falling back asleep. They want her to pee every 2 hours with chemo, and it had been almost 8. Morphine can effect the bladder too.
Tomorrow we’ll try the dilaudid to see if that works better. Overnight we’ll give her the oxycodone and neuronton. And hopefully this will help with her pain. The morphine just seems to give her the side effects and no help.
While the antibody was going on, the nutritionist dropped by. I can’t stand a nutritionist. I know they serve a vital function, but I just feel so aggravated with the food pushing. And yes I know she needs to eat, but how can one eat when they are being pumped full of drugs that mess with every aspect of your body.
The nurse practitioner on the floor stopped by to look at her. After awhile the doctor stopped by.
Mike asked about all the people coming in and out this morning. My description of it to him, made me think of the book “Lady with the Alligator Purse”.
My version:
“In came the nurse. In came the nutritionist. In came the nurse practitioner. In came the resident. In came the fellow. In came the attending doctor. In came the main doctor. In came the child life specialist. In came the psychologist. In came the optometrist. The only person who hasn’t stopped by is the lady with the alligator purse. And oh how I wish a slice of pizza was the fix for all of this.”
Re-reading this before I post it tonight, and I sound just over it. I am over it. Undergoing the antibody is not easy. And with the chemo kicking in, Jesse is miserable. Plus my computer and the internet here have not been getting along today.
Tonight Mike rode in the elevator with Jesse’s main oncologist. He told Mike how pleased he is with the tumor’s response, but to keep praying that the treatment works.
As for Mike, today he went to B clinic to donate the blood they need to test. He mentioned they took between 12 and 15 vials of blood today. Then he had an x-ray. Tomorrow he’ll have an EKG. Thursday is now the day for the aphresis. And rumor is they will put the natural killer cells in Jesse at 12:30am Saturday morning.
I know you guys are way past over it, to say the least. Hugs to all of you. Still good you have a sense of humor with your alligator purse. Good for you. As Jimmy Buffett sings “If we weren’t all crazy, we’d all go insane!” Hang onto that little bit of craziness with the alligator purse!
Praying as hard as we can!