It's been an interesting day! Here is the scoop. Last night was when they were supposed to start the new chemo, valcade. It is supposed to be done immediately following plasma pheresis. She was supposed to go down for pheresis at 7:30PM and I was going to go hang with her so she was not bored and alone. They postponed because they were short handed and Maddy didn't go down until 10:30! She told me to stay back in the room and go to bed because I had to work in the morning. She is so sweet! It took a few hours for her to get back, and then they had to get the chemo nurse to come administer the first dose of valcade. That didn't happen until about 1:30AM!
I got up with Maddy while they administered the chemo. It was not a huge dose but they had to administer it subcutaneous, like insulin, in her tummy. It burned for a but she said but didn't hurt for too long. I could tell she was very uncomfortable. They had lots of instructions and precautions to go along with the chemo. See the door signs below. The nurses all have to use special chemo gloves when working with Maddy especially when dealing with any of her body fluids. Apparently Maddy is now poisonous until 24 hours following her final dose of chemo. They gave her a dose of benadryl before to make sure she was covered in case of an allergic reaction. They also had an anti-nausea medication. Both if which usually knock Maddy out. So she was hoping to finally get some sleep and not experience any side effects.
She told me to go back to sleep after all the hubbub was over. I got a little bit of restless sleep but. She didn't have quite as much luck. She didn't have any nausea but she did experience some issues with her arms and legs. The best way to describe it is restless leg syndrome in all her appendages. At about 3:30AM she called her nurse who was able to get her some Adavant, which helped her get some restless sleep. When I got up at 4:30 to go to work she was resting a little.
After that she had a bit of a bad morning while I was at work. She tried to catch up on sleep but could not get past the weird feeling in her arms and legs. It was not exactly neuropathy, which is one of the possible side effects, but very uncomfortable and stress inducing none the less. The doctor told her everyone was ordered to leave her alone today. No pheresis, no chemo, only breathing treatments and lots of opportunity for rest. By the time I got back here after work around 2PM she was up and ready to get the heck out of this room for a while! We took a nice long walk to Starbucks and sat by the channel for about an hour in the fresh air and shade. It didn't take long for her to be back to her usual cheerful self! I'm still simply amazed at how resilient this young woman is!
The above pic is before Maddy went for her walk at 3:30PM. The pic at the top of the page is from about 8PM as we prepared to watch one of our favorite movies. What a difference! In other news, despite having to deal with all this hospital stuff and only a few hours sleep in the last few days I managed to have a good birthday too! Maddy remembered my birthday and wished me a happy bday at 1:30AM while she was getting stabbed in the tummy! Then I got to go to lunch with Missy, my new awesome girl friend. I also got a huge Wrights cake at the office! Maddy and I had a great chat during our walk and it was awesome to see her cheer up so quickly. Of course, the only thing that would have made it better is if Maddy was not going through this.
If things continue to proceed like this I will not post to this blog again for a few days. If things go south or get weird again I'll keep everybody in the loop. Remember no news is good news. Thanks again for all the prayers.
Posted with Blogsy
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