Thursday, July 1, 2010

funny how things work out...

Well today started out pretty good, got out of the hospital, Jamie took me for pancakes and then on to the West clinic for chemo. round 1. However, while in the hospital I developed this crazy rash on my neck and chest, that I was told late this afternoon was probably from the steroids. Well, the hospital said that hydro cortisone would fix it right up, so I lathered up in it for two day. I guess for all intents and purposes this should be true, but apparently, the DTIC, aka Dacarbazine apparently doesn't get along with hydrocortisone cream. So after the treatment, Jamie and I walked out to the car, probably 50 feet, and as soon as the Memphis sun hit my exposed skin where the cream had been applied, I seriously thought I was going to spontaneously combust right there in the parking lot. I have never run so fast for the car in my life! Of course I was crying by the time I got in the car, mainly because it scared the shit out of me, but also, because it was kinda like adding insult to injury at this point...you see I am not always super happy about all this stuff. Once in the car with the air conditioner on the pain went away very quickly, but Jamie made sure my blanket was securely fastened in the window and window blind, so no other sun touched me anywhere. And when we got home, he even lifted Hopper's kiddee pool up above my head to make sure I wasn't scorched again. I wasn't. I laid down for a while and decided to google this DTIC and really figure out how beastly it's gonna get. It looks like it's gonna be beastly for sure, First thing I saw was that it didn't get along at all with the hydrocortisone cream and basically I'm poisoning myself to kill these cancer cells, and I'm probably gonna get pretty sickly and nauseous within a few days. Well I called the on-call doc at the West clinic and he said to take a bath and wash off what I could and make an appointment to come in tomorrow and let on of the nurse-practitioners look at it 'just to double-check. So although I thought I was done with the doctor offices today, I guess not. I'm gonna have to let a lot of my preconceived notions go about what to and not to expect.

On a happier note, I did get to have dinner at a local mexican restaurant here in southaven. I had hoped to take Gus to india palace, but he and Jamie decided that was too far to go for me, so we'll do it another day. The food was OK, but it was definitely not Las Banderas or Cafe Ole. I like me some real mexican food! It was a little pricey, too, so we'll go "in search of" the next new mexican restaurant at a later date, And don't think I won't make it to India Palace with Gusto, he and I love Indian food, so we're going for sure soon!!

Wel it's now 9:20 and that's actually pretty late for me, so I'm gonna try to rest or even sleep now. Wish me luck, cause they gave me 20 mgs of decadron in my IV today before the chemo, and I've actually only been getting 12 mgs a day, and that level keeps me from sleeping soundly. Tomorrow I get to go back to the taper down dose. So I do have that to look forward to.

Bon Courage!

4 comments:

  1. you're on no walk in the park. of course you can cry. Keep on blogging sister. You made it through today; you are loved.

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  2. Hi Danielle, I tried this restaurant down in Horn Lake for the first time yesterday, it's called WiseGuys. It's all Chicago food. You can get deep dish pizza, regular pizza, polish sausage, the good Chicago-type hot dogs which are really like a good salad with a hot dog in the middle. Or you can get my favorite thing, which is Italian beef that has been slow-cooked and served on a stout hoagie roll with giardinera. Then they dunk the sammich in the juice. That is good stuff! It's on Hwy 51 south of Nail Rd., which is just south of 302/Goodman, on the west side of the street.
    -Lee

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  3. Danielle, it stinks to be diagnosed with cancer. Going through the treatment to beat it is not any better. You are doing great in a very, very crappy situation!! So glad the day ended on a good note!

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