Date with Space(wo)man: Chemo Day #2

***Disclaimer: Holy Crap! This is a really long post! But it was a really eventful day and I'm a talker so you'll just have to deal with it. Or do what Brett does and just look at the pictures! LOL***

My 2nd Date with the Space(wo)man was very different from my first. Still an Adventure but just with a lot more excitement. If that's what you can call it. LOL The first difference was that Brett went to work this time and KBro came up with me instead. She willingly sacrificed for an amazing all-day Girls Day Out with me. She's such a great selfishless friend! Also- Thanks Robbie for taking all our crazy little girls for the day. You're awesome!
We first met with Dr. Panwalker. He asked me all about how the last treatment affected me and we laughed how it was my seasonal allergies that were the worst part. He was very please that everything else went well. We went over my ANC (don't ask me what that stands for but it has to do with my blood count. It has to be at least 1500 for them to administer the next Chemo treatment.) Before any Chemo, my ANC was 5700. I had my blood drawn yesterday and the results said my magic number is 4900 this time. Not bad, I think. Then, I teased Dr. Panwalker that I had a bone to pick with him. I told him how I shaved my head but I haven't lost any yet. In fact it seems to be growing back. He said no way! He's never had a patient that hasn't lost their hair. He was not very sympathetic! He said to just wait cuz it's coming out. FINE! I'll be patient! LOL
He did do a breast exam and said that the lump seems to be half the size. That means the Chemos doing it's job. Yeah Chemo! Before he walked us down to the Infusion Center, I gave him the button I made for him. "I wear PINK for my Patients. Go TEAM SHAY!" He told us he guesses he's gonna have to find some pink to wear. (Although isn't that the point of my button. Silly guy!) KBro and I gave him a whole list of possibilities- shirts, ties, pants, hats, underwear, socks, (I even said I had a pair he could use). He didn't seem to like any of our suggestions. How rude! LOL He did say he would look into buying a pink tie. He's such a good man. ;) When we got to the Infusion center, I asked him how he felt about pictures. He said he was fine with it so we handed KBro the camera. Yeah... for the record- I am going to need to get an official TEAM SHAY photographer to come up with me as well. Don't get me wrong Kristen is an amazing Life Coordinator but as a photographer- not so much! Who knew that pushing one tiny button would be so difficult. Good thing that she has lots of other talents. I think it took her five times to get this shot. But at least we got one! Oh how I love that woman!

Back in the Infusion Center, I saw Nurse Katie from last time. She came over and gave me a hug. She said she loved my brunette wig! (She is really the only one who even knows me back there as a blonde. I get a kick out of the shock factor of "what will Shay look like next". It's kind of fun, I have to admit!) I gave her my little button gift and she told me she'd come check on me later. I just love the Chemo nurses! With my button collection, we are gonna turn everyone into an honorary members of TEAM SHAY by the end of this! Modesty is a virtue I truly possess! LOL
I was extra lucky and got to have 2 Chemo nurses today. Yeah for me! I made sure both got a "I wear pink for mt Patients. Courtesy of TEAM SHAY" button to wear. Go TEAM SHAY!
We started out by getting to know Nurse Julie. Kind of fun but somehow we got talking about religion. We told her that we belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Turns out that we have a mutual friend. Julie's daughter is best friends with my good friend, Lisa McKee's daughter. It's such a small world. It kind of bonded us so she came back several times to check on me. I love it when that happens. We spent most of our time with Julie waiting for my pre-meds to come in. Don't they know we are on a schedule here?? LOL We also chatted a lot about how my cancer's working out so well for everyone. We use it as a good excuse for everything- getting out of things, buying things, getting extra sympathy or a few extra GNOs. I even think Kristen is using that line way more than me. "Cuz you know, Shay has cancer!" LOL KBro and I are SO funny! We did a lot of laughing and joking around. I love it!

Our 2nd Chemo nurse was Nurse Carrie. She was just as great! She came in after the pre-meds to start the Chemo drugs. She fell in love with KBro and I right from the beginning. See- modesty is my strong point. LOL We talked about life, babies, boobs, movies, and just about everything. I just love making new friends. It truly was a great Date with Space(wo)man #2! Thanks lady!

Here comes the EXCITEMENT part of today. Remember that last time, I sailed right through my treatment. Well... this time we got started with the Docetaxol Chemo drug. Nothing to worry about. We're all good, right? Carrie stepped out for a bit and the Massage Therapist came in. She offered to give me a free foot massage. Who passes up a thing like that? Not me! We were chatting and getting my feet rubbed when my heart started racing a bit and I was having trouble breathing. I figured I was just talking too much so I decided to shut up for a minute to catch my breathe. Then my vision went a bit blurry and my face felt like it was beginning to swell. I interrupted Kristen to tell her that I wasn't feeling very well and could she go get my nurse. Kristen stuck her head out the door and asked the nurses if they could get Carrie for us. They said she was in with another patient. Then Kristen turned on her Authoritative IRS voice and said something like- "We need a nurse in here now!" The rest is a bit of a blur. Let's just say that we can add Life Saver to Kristen's life resume!
Really though, how many people does it take to save a chemo-reaction cancer patient's life? Apparently 5 nurses, a Life coordinator, a massage therapist doing a foot massage and a little red box! LOL I believe this is what happened- (although I can NOT be quoted by anything said after this point because I was really drugged by now) Somehow 5 nurses came rushing into the room all at the same time. They immediately stopped the Docetaxel drip. They put the oxygen thingy up my nose and an oxygenation (is that a word?) monitor on my finger. Then I believe they pumped me full of some magic drugs from the red box while they all were rubbing me, asking me questions, jotting down notes of my symptoms and perhaps freaking out a little. At least more than I was. LOL  I believe this is when the Massage Therapist made a silent exit. I felt bad I didn't get to give her a button. Maybe she'll come back next time. ;)
From my perspective this was what it felt like- It started with some chest pain, my heart was fluttering pretty bad, I was trying to breathe deeply but it came out in small tiny gulps of air, my face felt warm and felt like it had swollen to twice it's size (I felt a little embarrassed by the thought of what I looked like to everyone with my face like the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man), I couldn't really see very well so I just closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on my breathing, my lower back felt like I was having labor pains (I thought I was finished with that crap) and I really couldn't think coherently. Apparently, I'm even funnier when I am practically brain dead and really doped up on drugs. LOL I do remember one nurse coming in the room and looking at me. I heard her say,"Whoa!" and she visibly stepped back. She told me that my face was the color of the red box. Well, red IS my favorite color, don't ya know! It all happened so fast that I never really had time to panic. It seemed to me to pass pretty quickly. Carrie finally did come back and said, "What happened?- I was only gone for a short bit." I responded by telling her I didn't feel like the nurses at the desk were doing enough. I didn't want anyone to get bored. We all had a good laugh.

The RED Box that saved my life!

Looking back now, I realized that Carrie was pretty nervous so maybe I should have been to. But that's not really my thing in this Adventure called Breast Cancer so I wasn't. She said she was going to go talk to Dr. Panwalker about if he wanted to try it again. I told her that I would have a pep-talk with my Chemo drug while she was gone so it would understand it wasn't following the plan very well. When she came back, she reported that Dr. Panwalker wanted to try it again. I think that maybe she disagreed with him a tiny bit (maybe cuz if another reaction happened it would be her there saving my butt while he was eating a donut in his office or something. Being a doctor must be really rough! LOL). I reassured Carrie that I had had a little chat with the Chemo and if she gave me five more minutes I'd be ready. Our little misunderstanding with the Docetoxal threw our schedule off by about 30 minutes or longer. Cancer doesn't respect people's time frames very well. Really irritating! But we started it again as a slow drip until we passed the point of the the initial reaction (I think I only got 18ml in the first time). Carrie hung out with us until I got in 30 ml without any reaction. She kept rubbing my foot and saying, "How are you so calm? I think I'm more nervous than you."  I actually think that she was hoping that my crazy positive attitude and my weird calmness would flow to her as she rubbed my foot. If I moved at all she would freak out a bit. It was pretty funny cuz then I started doing things on purpose just to see her reaction! When she finally calmed down enough to leave, she told me that if I had any other pain to make sure I pushed the red button by the side of my bed. Well... first,  I could NOT see any red button. Remember, I was very drugged by this point. It just happened that the red button was on the end of a wire thing that was just out of my view. Who puts a red button there anyways? LOL Second, let me remind you that I had an IV in my left hand, a blood pressure cuff on my right arm, an oxygen tube up my nose, and oxygenation monitor on my right finger. Not really mobile at this point, people! So now I knew where the button was but seriously they wanted me to push the button with WHAT? My foot? I did an awesome yoga move to try to hit the button with my toe. I thought it was really funny!

Apparently, the extra drugs made me a little loopy- a severe case of Chemonesia, if you will! I was telling Kristen a story- It went something like this "So I was looking something up on a blog or the Internet or that little black box thing and oh crap! It's gone!" (My purpose of the story that is) Kristen started laughing so hard because I seriously didn't even take a breathe as I said, "Oh crap!" My thought process had completely left me. She tried to jog my memory but it was totally gone! We started laughing so hard, we began to cry. Do you know how hard it is to laugh with things up your nose? I had to hold my oxygen tube in as I laughed. We had several nurses come by to see what all the laughter was about. I think we might have to work on being a little more sensitive to the other cancer patients next time and keep our happiness to a minimum or at least a lower volume. Just in case you feel jipped that you missed this opportunity- go ahead and stick your fingers up your nose and laugh really hard. That's what it was like!
If you know me at all then you know how important I feel pictures are. There usually isn't a time that I don't have my camera on me. I was very proud of Kristen because in the midst of my near-death experience, she thought about taking a picture. But then she wasn't sure how appropriate it would be to ask the 5 nurses trying to save my life to move over so she could snap a picture. Therefore, she refrained. But it really is the thought that counts, right? I'm so proud of her! We did snap a picture after the craziness had subsided a bit. Unfortunately I think I look a little bit like a Dr. Seuss character; perhaps Thing 1 or Thing 2? Oh well! We can't all be photogenic ALL the time, right? {In the picture you can barely see the red button at the end of the wire hanging on the wall. Can you see how my angle is not helpful to see the dang thing?)

Once we made it through the Docetaxel (Yeah for me!), I decided I better use the restroom before we started the next Chemo drug. No reason to add bed-wetting to the next reaction if we can help it, right? LOL Carrie started unhooking all my extra things and then told me to sit up slowly and she' get me to the bathroom. I said OK but then in the same breathe asked her, "Did you say bathroom?" I swear that I might have heard her mention some kind of drug. You know like I'll get you some bathrydrum or something. Kristen totally started laughing at me again. Dang! Chemonesia is painful! They teased me that maybe I needed to be carried to the restroom. I asked if perhaps there was a good-looking male doctor or nurse that can carry me there. We couldn't find one on duty today so they made me walk. Mean! LOL They both held on to me pretty tight though and pushed my machine I was connected to as well. They wouldn't even let me lock the door and said they'd come in after me if I wasn't out in 5 minutes. I was feeling a bit like their confidence in my bathroom using ability was a little low. After I flushed twice (that's the rule for Chemo patients in the Infusion Center!), and was washing my hands, I finally figured out why I couldn't see very well. Turns out my "Bella-Wanna-Be" fetish got a little confused. Instead of the pupil of my eye turning red like hers, the entire whites of my eyes were blood-shot. No wonder everything was fuzzy. These crazy Chemo drugs that are trying to turn me into a Vampire are painful! I have a whole new level of sympathy for Mrs. Cullen. For the record though, I did make it out of the bathroom without them coming in after me and  I wasn't even molested. LOL Thank goodness KBro was there! If she hadn't been- there's no telling what may have happened.

The rest of the afternoon went fairly smoothly. I gave both the Cyclophosphamide and the Herceptin drugs a little pep talk and they both cooperated. We did have lots of visits from all our new Life Saving Chemo Nurse friends to check on us and make sure I was still alive. We were pretty popular. However in the midst of the craziness of the day, both Kristen and my cell phones died. So much for a Life Coordinator that makes sure we are all prepared. LOL Turns out we didn't call Becky about switching preschool to a different place. We didn't call Sean to tell him that his car was actually parked at the Church and not his home (oh- I take that back- we did leave a message on someone else's phone for him but had no idea if he even got the message). We chatted at Brett to tell him I had had a reaction but then told him we'd have to call him back which we never were able to do. Oops! We didn't call KBro's kids to tell them we weren't going to be there after school but we did manage to get a text off to Ethan to get home as soon as he can before my phone finally died. Oh what a day!

We finally got out of the hospital around 4, I think. With all the insanity that happened today, I was surprised that Kristen was a bit bummed that Jen N. will be coming with me to my next treatment. She told me to make sure I have her audition for the part to make sure she can handle it. You know ask her things like "So if I have a heartache or my face blows up or I completely turn into a Vampire- What do you do?" Cuz you know now that Kristen is a Cancer Patient Life Saver, she wants to make sure other people can do the job! All kidding aside though- I just love you Kristen. Thanks for coming with me today and for saving my life! XOXO!
2 down... 2 to go! Half way there, baby!