Pete put in a full day of work on Monday. The plan was to have chemo Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, rest on Friday and work again on Saturday. Well, as so often happens, the best laid plans...
Things seemed to go smoothly Tuesday and Wednesday, though at the end of each day he was exhausted. His father drove him to the oncologists' office and I picked him up. Both days he slept much of the drive home and he went immediately to bed when we got home. I woke him up several times and encouraged him to drink water, and of course to take his post-chemo meds, but he had no appetite for any food. He did manage to get down a bottle of Ensure, but nothing else.
His father drove him up on Wednesday for the 3rd treatment, but a little after 10 he texted me to ask if I could come up and take him to the hospital. It seemed that they could not get a blood return from his port. (description of a port: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_(medical) )
One of the chemo drugs that Pete is taking must be administered very carefully directly into the vein. If any leaks out around the injection site and contacts any tissue outside the vein it is very caustic and will damage that tissue (skin, muscle, etc). Before starting the infusion, the nurse must make certain that the pathway to the vein is clear, so she connects a syringe and draws back on it and if there is blood return, then the treatment proceeds.
Well, on Thursday morning it happened there was no blood return. The nurse tried the prescribed remedies but to no avail, so I drove up and took him to the hospital where they would do tests and scans to determine what the problem was and fix it.
We arrived at the hospital a little after 11 AM. Pete underwent several different tests and scans. One of the concerns is always thrombosis (blood clot) and they had to rule that out as well as get the port cleared. Pete was given an "ok" and after a dose of blood thinner and a bit of extra suction, they were finally able to get a blood return. By this time it was 5 PM, so day 3 of chemo was rescheduled for Friday.
Pete was pretty much wiped out by the time we got home. He did have a bottle of Ensure later that evening before taking his post-chemo med. He was also able to drink one for breakfast before we headed back up to complete the chemo regimen. I waited around for a while to make certain all was well before I headed back home. I returned in the late afternoon to pick him up. It was another long day for him. He had called his work to tell them that he would not be able to come in today (Saturday) as scheduled.
During the night and into this morning he experienced some of the "crawling" skin discomfort that I've heard/read about that can be one of the side effects of chemo. He actually was able to eat about 3/4 of an English muffin for breakfast. A little later today he'll get his Nulasta shot.
It was a rough week. The weather is rainy with terrible wind gusts and warnings of flooding so it's a good day to stay inside, relax and recover.
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