A Day in the Life of Jill

Well I can't believe I let a month go by without blogging..I guess I better catch you all up to speed..a slow moving speed that is ;)

Needless to say, I have become a druggy ha ha kidding. I'm  just surprised my body hasn't gone into shock.   yet. Anyways, in addition to receiving chemotherapy treatments every two weeks, Jilly gets to take home these lovely cocktails of pills, drinks, and injections....I shall explain. Prior to each treatment I have to take 3 steroids, the Emend(featured in the middle) and 2 other pills in order to prevent any sort of nausea from the chemo...I continue taking these pills for 3 days after. I'm proud to say I haven't puked once since the first treatment; although I do get the dry heaves sometimes.

To the far left we have my Neupogan...oooooo it is evil I tell you. About 24 hours after my chemo treatment Ellie has to administer these Neupogan shots into my stomach.  Their sole purpose is to help increase my blood count levels because the chemo lowers them drastically. Normally, I was getting these shots for 5 days after chemo, but now I am getting them for 10 because my blood count levels were still too low.  For example, your normal white blood cell level should be between 4 and 11...mine was 0.3. In a nutshell, when your blood counts are low, you are more susceptible to infection but about a million times more serious. So if you are wondering why you haven't seen me or read a silly blog, it's because I've basically had to quarantine myself and rest rest rest. So on a funny note, because I have taken about 30 injections into my stomach lately and my blood counts have been so kaka, I've actually started to look like a pin cushion hehe. I have all these little bruises all over my stomach.  As a matter of fact, the last shot bruised pretty bad and I have this huge black and purple blotch...I would post a picture of it but my boobie doo belly is really boobying right now (I'm sure only a few of you will understand that) - I blame it on the roids hahaha

So the big medicine bottle full of liquid is actually called the Magic Mouth Wash...let me tell you there is nothing magical about it other than the fact that it looks like the Slime from the sewers in Ghostbusters 2. One of the nasty side effects from chemo is mouth sores or thrush...Luckily (knock on wood) I haven't experienced any of that yet, but I got nervous one day so I took a swig just to be cautious...They say take one tablespoon swoosh and swallow...OH MY GOSH...if there was ever a time I was going to barf...that was it...Let's just say the magic mouth was is hidden in the back of the fridge...yuck...even thinking about it triggers nausea hahaha

Anyways, the rest of the pills are just pain killers, sedatives, sleeping pills, acid reducers....you know everything a druggy would carry around.

Alright, let's stop talking about my pill-popping life he he

I have now completed 4 rounds of chemotherapy which means I am now on the countdown...4 more to go..wooo hooo On a happy note, I never have to experience the RED DEVIL ever again yay!

I'm sure many of you are probably wondering how I am doing with chemo and how I'm feeling. To be honest, I really don't want to sit here and blog about how awful I am feeling because that's just too depressing and I would feel awful if that's all you guys had to read about. So I'll make this part brief haha. Chemo is kicking my butt. Inside of the 2 weeks, I usually only get 3 days where I feel somewhat normal and the rest I am usually in bed..but even though I feel horrible most days, I know that I am saving my life and that in just a few more months I will be in remission feeling fabulous :) Ok done..no more drepessing talk

So Friday I am starting a whole new chemo drug called Taxol. I'm also getting Herceptin which isn't a chemo drug, but an antibody that will help prevent the cancer from coming back.  The Herceptin I will be on for the next year. I go there for 8am and the nurse said to prepare to be there all day. I guess each drug takes 3 hours to infuse plus and hour in between and before and after to "flush" the port....So about 9 hours in total..ewww. I better bring a book or something.

Anyways, funny story...I asked the nurse that was administering my last chemo what I should expect from the Taxol and here is a clue to what she said:

FROZEN OVEN MITTS my friends!!! So apparently while the Taxol is being infused, it attacked the peripherals right away. More specifically, the Taxol attacks the nail beds causing them to lift and get infected. So in order to prevent that, I have to wear these frozen oven mitts and occasionally dunk my hands in ice baths ...really??? Is that not the funniest thing you've ever heard..I really hope this nurse was kidding. I'll let you know how it goes though.

Anyways, not too much new with me.  I apologize this blog wasn't as silly as the other ones...more to come though.  Hope you all have a wonderful week...Thanks for all of your love and support...you all mean the world to me.  I will blog soon!

Again sorry for the bad grammar...my brain is getting fried...must be all these drugs ;)

Lots of Love
Jilly