Off work today so I could go to a couple appointments. First, I had to drive David to Boulder's Fiske Planetarium for his astronomy class field trip. He was nervous about driving himself that far in his new car so I was going to drive him today anyway, but since he spent half the night in the ER and was out on propofol getting endoscoped, I definitely needed to drive him anyway! Good thing too because after I picked him up he wasn't feeling well and didn't feel like going back to school.
My first appointment was a follow up with Dr. Kemmis, my radiation oncologist. I went over my list of symptoms and everything I had to mention was normal. The vaginal drainage is lessening and most of the time there is none, but it's still normal. The radiation and changes to my hormones affect the vaginal flora and cause this reaction, he said. The hot flashes, normal. He said again that at my age he believes this will be a permanent menopause for me.
Being foggy-brained, losing my balance, and not knowing what I'm doing sometimes....all normal, but probably mostly caused by lack of sleep because those darn hot flashes wake me more times a night than my newborn babies ever did!
The increase in pain? Still normal. I don't have pain most days but it just comes on sometimes, probably when I do too much walking. I asked him if it's possible the tumor was growing or the cancer spreading, but he said not likely.
So it was a relief to hear everything's normal. The nurse even told me that they wish they saw more patients like me. Most people have so many more side effects and complaints and really do not handle it well at all. I asked her if she meant patients with exactly my same type of cancer, stage, and treatment, and she said yes!
After that appointment I had to hurry to my next one, my primary doc, so that I could get surgical clearance. I got an EKG, chest x-rays, urine sample, and then sent back to the hospital for blood work. She also gave me a prescription for an anti-itch cream for a skin reaction I've had for a couple years. My belief is it's an allergic reaction to Vicodin. If the cream doesn't work she'll send me to a dermatologist and maybe get a biopsy. I'm pretty sure the cream will work. For years now whenever I take Vicodin my entire body itches. But there's one spot on my chest that is the worst. When I scratch it too much I get this red, dry spot.
Ever read that sheet of directions, indications, and sides effects you get when you pick up a prescription? I do, but then again I read everything. The first thing on the side effects list is "itching". Yep. The cream I'm taking for my extreme case of itching may cause itching.
No comments:
Post a Comment