Day 1 - We Don’t Talk About Bruno!
We did it! Day 1 is pretty much in the book.
This morning Darek brought me to the M Health Fairview Cancer Center at the Physician’s Building in Edina. We checked in at 8:00 AM and spent the better part of the day there. The infusion started out without a hitch, with anti-nausea medication. That took about 20 minutes and we proceeded to start the Oxaliplatin chemotherapy. After about 25-30 minutes I started noticing tingling in my fingertips and hands. I let my nurse know and she stopped the pump immediately. She notified the Oncologist in the office and he stopped in to discuss the symptoms with me. They collaborated with the pharmacy and decided to try to prevent the symptoms from happening again by giving me Benadryl and Pepcid infusions, and then begin again at a very slow speed, gradually increasing. This meant it would take 5 hours instead of 2, which was a slight bummer.
We moved ahead with this plan, at which time I started to feel nausea coming on. I let one of the nurses know, but she didn’t want me to take anything more at that time because they had just given me so many other meds. I tried to fall asleep, but that only worked for about 10 minutes. My nurse came back in and I told her about the nausea and she had me take some Zofran, which worked within minutes. I also ate a few crackers and Darek graciously offered to go to the Cheesecake Factory to pick up a salad for me (after -perusing the hospital cafeteria). I wasn’t going to deny that offer, so he quickly drove there and picked it up. It was a nice, fresh meal option, which in a million ways trumped the offerings at the infusion center of graham crackers, pretzels, and saltines.
We started the infusion again on a very low speed, but after about the same about of medicine, the symptoms returned and started getting worse. They were moving up my arms and legs, and I was getting cramps in both of my feet. The oncologist was not available at that point, but the Nurse practitioner that I saw on Friday came in and decided we would stop the infusion of the Oxaliplatin and hook up the pump of the 5FU to take home as planned.
The timing of this all worked out for us to be able to pick the kids up from school right on time, so that was a positive. We don’t know what the plans will be be going forward, but I meet with an oncologist on Wednesday to revise our plan. My oncologist, Dr. L., is on vacation for 2 weeks, so I will see a partner of hers (Dr. K.).
So - the pump that I brought home, is hooked into my port and will continuously infuse for 46 hours. I will typically have a home health nurse come to the house to unhook it when the 46 hours are through, but this week I will have it done in the clinic when we meet with Dr. K. on Wednesday. I have affectionately named my pump, “Bruno.” If you have seen the movie Encanto, this will make sense to you. If not, the basic theme is that “We don’t talk about Bruno…” This pump is the elephant in the room, and much like Bruno in the movie whose purpose was misunderstood (and actually very useful), sometimes certain forms of medicine are misunderstood and lurk in the dark until someone helps reveal their full benefit. So, we now refer to this pump as Bruno. It’s a fascinating invention that runs based on thermal heat. It has to remain on me the entire time.
Things may not have gone exactly as planned today, but we trust that God has a greater plan, and he is working through this to lead us in the best possible way. Today’s Verse of The Day is:
Isaiah 41:10
Do not fear [anything], for I am with you; Do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, be assured I will help you; I will certainly take hold of you with My righteous right hand [a hand of justice, of power, of victory, of salvation].’
God’s Got This!
