Day 15 – My Healing Journey

Thankfully there was a month in between each chemotherapy treatment so I had some time to at least try to start feeling better before I subjected myself to the 2nd treatment.  

Three days before the treatment, they give you an oral steroid medication, one pill per day for three days to prepare your body to receive the chemotherapy.  They often give another drug called dexamethasone to prevent nausea.  Being a typical “non-drug” type of person, I opted to NOT take that.  Thankfully, I didn’t experience any nausea after the first treatment.

They typically do bloodwork a few days after your treatment and follow up day after shot so they can check the white cell counts.  Unfortunately my white blood cell count was still way too low so they said I needed to get a second shot.  That put me in a tailspin.

I was quite sure that I didn’t want to put my body in that position again so I asked about other options for a different solution. My oncologist offered me another shot option which was a series of two shots with alleged lower dosages. After much thought, I decided I would try that option in hopes of no dramatic side effects.

You’ve all heard the sentences “Be careful what you wish for” and “The grass is always greener on the other side”.  Well, both of those sentences rang true for me.  I wish I had NOT opted to change up the treatment as I realized that “Different isn’t always better.”  I received the first shot and had to go back the next day for the second one. If you’ve ever had a migraine headache, you will understand what it feels like to have your head throbbing to the extent that you really believe it’s going to explode.

I was not prepared for this particular side effect and it came on very suddenly after the shot.  Unfortunately, I had to endure it for quite some time before I was able to get back home and take some hydrocodone.  Unlike the previous bone pain, the hydrocodone did not fully take away the migraine, it only took the edge off. Now I had put myself in a position where I had to go the next day to get yet another shot knowing it would result in the same outcome.

I kept telling myself “This too shall pass “ and that I was strong enough to get through it but my body had a mind of its own and it was NOT happy about any of it.  Thankfully, my white blood cell count started to rebound after the second shot. They informed me that if it did not rebound to a normal level after the 3rd one that they would have to delay the second chemotherapy treatment until it did. 

At that point, I really didn’t care whether I ever got the second treatment and had pretty much talked myself out of it altogether.  I met with my oncologist, who thankfully was a compassionate and caring woman and I expressed my fears to her.  She said that she could monitor the chemo drugs and if we needed to lower the dosages due to side effects or complications, we could. 

I asked about whether my chemo drugs would cause me to lose my hair.  She said that some drugs used didn’t cause hair loss but that the two drugs that they were administering were going to guarantee that I lose all my hair within the first 14 days.  I had already prepared myself and had purchased a few wigs just in case.