Left side is Bob and his friends, right side is a recent picture
My blood work showed that my iron deficiency has gotten worse, and that my white blood cell count has dropped so significantly that I have to receive Neulasta shots for the rest of my treatment. Basically, as I mentioned before, the chemo destroys the good with the bad, including my white blood cells. The white blood cells primary job is to help defend the body against infectious diseases, etc. so, with a greatly decreased number, I have a very high chance of getting sick, and not being able to fight the sickness off at this point. Neulasta is a shot that I receive the day after chemo that forces my body to produce a ton more white blood cells. Side effects are bone pain, especially in the chest, where the largest number of white blood cells are made. I experienced this last week, and at times it felt like when I moved the wrong way I had resonating pain at my very core. Weird, a bit unpleasant, but I have definitely had worse.
Tomorrow is chemo 4, and when I am done I can say that I am half way through my treatment. I'm excited to reach that milestone, even though my stomach is a little sick with trepidation. It is never as bad as I build it up to be in my head, in fact the treatment itself is fairly easy. It's the way I feel after that makes me so nervous, the tiredness and the weakness. I know that it is tough for anyone going through this, but for someone like me, who is usually able to push my body to do what I want it to do, it is pretty frustrating. I guess the prime example is what happened this past Friday. I have been struggling with watching the number rise higher and higher on the scale. I know I have bigger fish to fry right now, but frankly, I have worked incredibly hard on myself physically, and it irks me to see that hard work float away. So, for the first time in 3 months, I decided I was going for a run. I had absolutely no stamina, and was having an awful time of it, but pushed through anyway so I could complete 2 miles. About an hour later, I went in to have my port flushed and my blood drawn. My favorite nurse came and got me, and began diagnostics, when she noted that my pulse was quite a bit higher than normal.
Nurse: Allie, your heart rate is pretty elevated compared to your usual
Me: uhhh.... *mumbles*
Nurse: did you just say you went for a run about an hour ago?
Me: uh, yeah.
Nurse: when is the last time you ran?
Me: about three months ago?
Nurse: *long pause then big sigh* only you, Allie, would start running again while you're midway through chemotherapy. I'm not going to tell you not to run, but at least slow down please. The adriamycin has bad effects on you. *walks away shaking her head*
P.S. This is my post run face:
I wasn't thrilled
I've started putting things together for post treatment to look forward to, all of which I am super excited about. 1 thing in particular, you all may find a little crazy. For a number of years, my amazing friend Rachelanne has been doing Spartan races, which are these incredible races that vary in length, and include tons of awesome obstacles. I have always wanted to do one, so as a celebration of being back in control over my body, we are doing the Malibu Spartan sprint. Buuuut, because that obviously isn't intense enough, we are doing the hurricane heat. What that means is, we will be there at 6 am Saturday, doing the course in teams, in a way different from everyone else. We won't know how until we get there, but it could be something like backwards, or carrying another team member on our back! If you're interested in checking it out, or possibly doing it with us, this is the link: http://www.spartan.com/events/?event_id=146/malibu-sprint
I will try to update again sooner than last time... I just get swept up in finally feeling better on my good week, and I try and squeeze the most out of my days. Thank you all for your support as usual. Lots of love,
Allie
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