Hey friends! I thought I’d go ahead and start this blog to update everyone on my journey with Hairy Cell Leukemia (HCL). Today I start my little 5 day chemo treatment. I’m nervous about putting this stuff in my body but I had a buddy tell me to think of Chemo as my friend so that’s what I’m focusing on. I had a hard time sleeping last night and I’ve read that they may give me Benadryl to mitigate any allergic reactions so I may fall asleep in the chair. Kelli’s here for moral support and to watch TV with me. I like the folks in this office. I’m being treated by Tennessee Oncology and they seem to have a good reputation. I’ll make a post later about my diagnosis story in case any of you are curious about how we figured out I had HCL. Here we go!
POST TREATMENT UPDATE:
Today was a long day. Met with the Doctor. Didn’t really learn anything new just sort of caught up. Before any treatment they give me my “Pre Meds”— two Tylenol pills, then through my IV they give me Benadryl and some steroid. These are supposed mitigate any allergic reactions to the meds. I got my first dose of chemo, Cladribine, which is a pretty mild one. It shouldn’t make me lose hair or anything. And then they immediately started me on my immunotherapy rituxen which has antibodies that are supposed to teach my body to fight this cancer cell I think.
The Chemo drip went smoothly. Took a couple hours. Immunotherapy took a long time because they were stopping every thirty minutes to check my vitals and make sure my body wasn’t freaking out. About halfway through the immunotherapy I did have a bit of a bad reaction. I started shivering (like the kind of shaking you get when you’re freezing cold but I wasn’t) and I had an awful headache. The nurses were there and ready to help me through it though. They stopped the immunotherapy drip to give me the “pre meds” again. Then we got back to it and the rest of the day was fine. Left around 4:30pm after getting there around 8:15am.
I didn’t finish my first dose of immunotherapy so I’ll have another long day tomorrow when I do the same—chemo followed by immunotherapy to finish the first dose. Hoping it goes a bit smoother but all in all, today wasn’t so bad.
