When I had my very first chemo treatment, I had a reaction. I was just sitting there listening to my hubs talk to another patient getting his infusion. All of a sudden it felt like I had knives being shoved into my shoulders and in the small of my back. At first it was just a tingling feeling, but it quickly got worse. I reached over to hubs, said "get a nurse" and within a minute I had like 6 nurses, my doc, and hubs all standing over me. I was struggling to get a full breath in from the pain I was in. The nurses were administering tons of medicines to counteract the reaction and stopping the Taxol. And 5 minutes later I was all good.
My first chemo infusion was supposed to last a total of 3 hours, including blood draw, Dr visit, pre-meds, and Taxol infusion. We were there for 6. They had to start the Taxol slowly, and slowly increase it. Usually it takes 1 hour for it to drip in. They slowed it to 3 hrs. Man did I need to pee when that was over with!
But well, back to my point. Because of that, they jacked my steroid intake. It started out at 2.5 pills the night before, 2.5 pills the day of, plus 12mg of IV during. For two weeks. They changed it to 5 pills the night before, 5 pills the day of, and 12mg of IV during. I was on that for 6 freaking weeks! A total of 52mg of dexamethasone for 6 whole weeks. And it would have been longer had I not mentioned it to the PA during one of my visits.
One of the side effects of roids is swelling. I feel like the Michelin man I am so puffy. I haven't been this swollen since I was 8 months pregnant! Also, I am 90% sure, some of the blah I feel isn't from the chemo, but from withdrawals from the roids. I get it on Thursday and by Monday I always feel shaky, achy, and just completely wretched. But then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday I feel fine. By Sunday evening, I start feeling like poo. And by Monday, well, lets just say another case of the Mondays just doesn't even touch it.
When this is all said and done, if I never have to take another steroid again I will be a happy happy lady!
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