Chemobrain…

Yep, it’s back.  I feel it coming on slowly, but surely.  For my chemo treatments, I have 14 days on (with an IV infusion at the cancer center once a week - and oral medications, 6 pills a day for 14 days) and then 14 days off.  The past 2 weeks have been nice, seems like the chemobrain went away somewhat, but I feel it creeping on again since I started chemo again 2 days ago.  I came across a page from MayoClinic.com, which I will quote, so y’all know exactly what I’m talking about here.  I will add the link at the bottom.  Don’t want anyone to think I’m stealing anything here…

What is chemobrain?

The terms “chemobrain” and “chemofog” refer to cognitive changes during and after cancer diagnosis and treatment. Though these terms imply a relation to chemotherapy, it isn’t clear that chemotherapy is responsible. Women with breast cancer who underwent chemotherapy were the first group to bring these symptoms to light, as more started mentioning their symptoms to their doctors. It isn’t clear whether chemotherapy, or other factors such as stress and hormonal fluctuations, cause the changes in memory and thinking. What is clear is that some people with cancer do notice increased difficulties with certain mental tasks during and after cancer treatment.

In general, researchers have found that chemotherapy can affect your cognitive abilities in the following ways:

• Word finding. You might find yourself reaching for the right word in conversation.
• Memory. You might experience short-term memory lapses, such as not remembering where you put your keys or what you were supposed to buy at the store.
• Multitasking. Many jobs require you to manage multiple tasks during the day. Multitasking is important at work as well as at home — for example, talking with your kids and making dinner at the same time. Chemotherapy may affect how well you’re able to perform multiple tasks at once.
• Learning. It might take longer to learn new things. For example, you might find you need to read paragraphs over a few times before you get the meaning.
• Processing speed. It might take you longer to do tasks that were once quick and easy for you.

Here is the link to the original article.

The Chemo Chronicles: 7.3.08

On July 3, 2008, I had my 5th chemo treatment.  This was my first treatment on the full, official MOPP regimen.  My first two treatments included ABVD, which I was taken off of because my pulmonary (lung) function tests showed that I could not receive the B-portion of the regimen which is the medication Bleomycin.  Bleomycin has the tendency to be extremely toxic to the lungs, and they feared that my lungs may become fibrotic and it would damage my lungs further than they already are.  The next two treatments I received were of MOPP, but since Nitrogen Mustard had to be special ordered (I am the first one to ever receive it at the cancer center), they had to substitute the Nitrogen Mustard with Cytoxan.  So here we are at my 5th treatment, receiving the full MOPP treatment which consists of Nitrogen Mustard, Oncovin, Procarbazine and Prednisone.  The picture of me is pre-infusion.  I am always happy to be at the cancer center as everyone there has always been more than helpful, kind, courteous and has gone out of their way to make me comfortable.

A nurse, Diann, had seen my chart and come to the waiting room to get me.  She said that she knew who I was, but since she hadn't had me as a patient before she thought it would be nice to have me as a patient and get to know me.  She ended up being an awesome nurse, and was attentive and contientious of the new treatment.  She mentioned that even though she had never given Nitrogen Mustard, neither had any other nurse there at the cancer center, that she remembered there was a question on her nursing boards about Nitrogen Mustard.  She mentioned she was excited to give it to me. 

I also had a visitor that day.  Earlier in the week, at a small class that was held at the cancer center, I met a survivor of Hodgkin's.  He had all of his treatments there at the cancer center and still actively participates in things going on there.  We got to talking after the class and he told me that there are other Hodgkin's patients that communicate outside of the cancer center.  Brandon mentioned another gentleman named Max that he talks to regularly.  Brandon asked when my next treatment was and said he would come.  He actually made it!  It was nice to see someone else there that understood what I was going through and understood what was being done to me.  We exchanged stories about symptoms, prediagnosis and then he went on to tell me about things that had gone on with him and ultimately his bone marrow transplant.  He was able to harvest his own bone marrow to receive the transplant.  His story was fascinating to me, I would love to hear some of your stories and to learn from everyone that reads this about what types of things you have gone through and might be going through.

So, anyhow…  Back to the treatment.  Both of the medications that I take through an IV infusion, Onconvin and Nitrogen Mustard, are both done through IV push.  When I was getting ABVD, I would be at the cancer center upwards of 5 hours, but this time I was only there just short of two hours.  I had to get my vitals of course, and then they give premeds which consists of a strong anti-emetic, to keep you from getting nauceous, and dexadron, a steroid that helps to keep you from having a reaction to the chemotherapy itself.  Diann also let a 500cc bag of normal saline drip, just to hydrate me and to flush me well because of the Nitrogen Mustard.  She told me that the Nitrogen Mustard must be pushed as soon as it is mixed.  She infused it over 4 minutes - which it is recommended to be pushed between 3 and 5 minutes.  The 4 minutes seemed to work fine with me, causing no adverse effects.  I was nervous though, because she did bring a syringe of Benadryl to the chair-side with her.  No nurse had done it before, I thought there was something I needed to be worried about because she was anticipating some sort of adverse response or effects.  She assured me that she always has it with her just in case.  I took her word for it and let her continue.  Honestly, I thought there would be this IV bag hanging there with some dark yellowish, thick goo that would be dripping into my viens, but as you can see in the picture it was nothing like that at all.

The Nitrogen Mustard hasn't made me sick at all.  I have been lucky to not get sick ever from any chemo treatments.  They say that each chemo treatment may be different, and I might tolerate it differently from day to day.  But all in all each treatment has been pretty much the same.  Each one tends to wipe me out a little bit.  For the first few hours after chemo I have a HUGE surge of energy, followed by a night's good sleep (with the help of temazapam, of course) and then the next few days I experience moderately severe heartburn.  Other than that, aside from the rock-bottom blood levels, I haven't had any bad experience from my treatments.  The indigestion does seem quite a bit worse with this treatment, but I am not sick…  Knock on wood.

So I am off to lay back down.  I need to do some more resting - it can only do a body good!  If you're reading this and are on MOPP, I would love to hear from you.  I would like to see how your treatments are going or have gone, if you were on it previously.

And if you have never been on MOPP, I would still love to hear from you!

The Dreaded Moment: The Diagnosis.

To get caught up on what had happened prior to this you can click here.

Basically, this section starts with my first visit to my oncologist, Dr. Clark.  My primary told me the night before that she had gotten the results from my CT scan back and had my lab work back showing positive cancer markers.  She told me that she had talked to her oncologist friend and he gave me two choices:  I could be admitted to the hospital that night or I could be in his office promptly at noon the next day.  I decided on the most convenient of the two, the office visit and this is where I pick up.

I was kind of nervous that day walking into the cancer center, who wouldn’t be?  I didn’t know Dr.  Clark and of course, I didn’t know what to expect.  Who would know what to expect that hadn’t been through this before. Read more

Doctor’s Appointment - Apples and Oranges

I had another doctor's appointment today.  I have to say that I think that this is the first time that I have actually left the cancer center pleased.  Dr.  Clark was in an extraordinarily good mood, it seemed.  Not that he is grouchy, don't get me wrong, because he's not.  He is a great, caring doctor - but I think today was the first time I've ever seen him laugh! He listened to my lungs, he actually said they sound beautiful.  Check me for enlarged lymph nodes, there were none that were palpable.  Checked my legs for edema.  All the usual, and he said everything looks good. I was taken aback, however, when he walked in the room and kindly stated, "You've gained weight!".  I was quietly thinking, "Thanks…I think…?"  I concurred with him on the weight gain thing.  I mean, it's really not an opinion, mere fact.  A month ago, almost to the day, I weighed 125.  After using the restroom a few minutes ago, I weighed in at a hefty 141.  Sigh.  When I first started putting the weight back on a couple weeks ago, I thought it was due to the prednisone, though, I don't think with being off of it the past week and the 16 pounds I put on, that it's the medication.  I mentioned to him, not in so many words, that I was somewhat unhappy I was putting on the weight.  He reassured me that it is a good thing, meaning I'm fighting the Hodgkin's.  Okay.  I guess I can't argue with that, however, I think it's time to start hitting the high protein foods and more fruits and veggies.  Pretty soon my new clothes won't fit anymore if I continue on this trend. I did ask him about these little red, blister-like bumps I have been getting.  I have a couple on my back, three or four on my arms and one on my neck.  They are itchy, but they don't appear to be bug bites, besides I don't really spend that much time outside where I am exposed to bugs that would bite me.  He said to keep an eye out, to make sure I wasn't getting a great amount of them on my abdomen and back.  He said that it is common for Hodgkin's patients to get shingles.  Great, that was just what I was afraid of.  And if you look at them closely, they actually look like they could be chicken pox.  But I said they were itchy, they aren't THAT itchy.  I will just have to keep an eye on it. My labs were awesome, my neutrophils are only mildly low -so acceptable, my hemoglobin was 12.7 - awesome!!, and he said my platelets look good.  Dr.  Clark said I was good to go for chemo tomorrow.  I will have chemo (MOPP) tomorrow and then again next week, and then I will be off for another 2 weeks.  I am a little nervous, though, because this will be my first chemo treatment with the nitrogen mustard.  This is my 2nd cycle of MOPP, but for the 1st cycle they didn't have the nitrogen mustard, so they had to substitute it with cytoxan.  As a matter of fact, it had to be special ordered because they couldn't find it anywhere in New Mexico.  The nitrogen mustard is supposed to be a little more harsh and so I am wondering what the adverse effects will be.  To date I haven't gotten sick at all.  I have kept a positive outlook though and had the mindset that I wouldn't get sick, I'm sure that has helped at least a little.  Anyhow, getting off track, let's get back to the doctor's appointment. I asked if the nitrogen mustard is better in this chemo regimen than the cytoxan.  Dr.  Clark said that it's not necessarily better that he knew of.  He just mentioned that more studies have been done with the mustargen and from what the studies show there has been a little better success, so they just go with what they know, which is using the nitrogen mustard instead of the cytoxan.  I accepted the answer, it seemed logical to me.  Let's just hope that I react the same way I have been reacting all along. I had a chest xray a couple weeks ago.  I had what could have potentially been a couple night sweats, so he wanted to xray me to make sure I didn't have TB.  He told me today that the chest xray revealed no TB, which was pretty much a given since they didn't call and start treating me as soon as they got the results back, but he also told me that according to the xray, the masses showed "shrinkage".  I asked him how it looked compared to the PET scan I had after my very first chemo treatment and he said it like comparing apples to oranges.  Understandable, the two tests are done very differently and show very different things.  I do want a PET though.  Dr.  Clark said that he will have me do another one in about a month, but I am very anxious and don't want to wait.  I want to make sure that everything is still on the up and up.  I can hold out a little bit though, right?  It's not that far away from now, is it?  Sigh.  I just want to know I'm doing better.  But all in all, the appointment went VERY well.

2008 Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Mission Statement (Video)

Support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society… They help to save lives, and if you have Leukemia or Lymphoma, call them.  You need their help.

« Previous Page