Jan 06 2009
Do you know what type of chemo you are getting?
If you are getting ready to have chemotherapy, or are in the process of getting it now, here are some things that you might want to watch out for. I made it through chemo with out too much trouble; at least I thought so, my family might think differently though.
The chemo I was given was Cisplatin, and I had a treatment once a week for 5 weeks; the treatments were supposed to go 6 weeks, but by the 5th week, I had had too much and it was causing all kinds of major problems. To begin with, I was given a great piece of advice from a nurse I had that administered the chemo. Usually chemo patients are given an anti-nausea medication to take if they have trouble eating or are feeling sick after the treatments. I was told that I should take the medication immediately after my chemo, and then make sure that I took it every eight hours (or however often the prescription says) for the next three days. I was supposed to even set my alarm clock to make sure that for three days, I took that pill every eight hours. It did seem to help I think. I usually didn’t start to feel sick until the third day, and then after I took that last pill on the third day, I started feeling better, no more nausea, and a plus, I was still able to eat anytime, and anything. I made sure that I drank lots of water, sometimes even forcing myself to drink, making sure I drank about 2 litters a day minimum. The water is important; it is used to flush out as much of the Cisplatin as possible. I was asked constantly if I was having any trouble urinating, which I wasn’t, in fact quite the opposite, I was constantly going. About the 3rd week of chemo, my right hand and arm would start to tingle about 3 days after chemo. I asked both my radiation doctor, and my oncologist, and neither said that it was from the treatments they were giving me. I had my 5th treatment, and the tingling became extreme. I was driving home when both my arms tingled, then my face, my sternum, and what felt like straight through to my back. I actually had to tell myself when to take a breath, and went to exhale. My hands became cramped, and turned inwards when ever I tried to just relax. Driving home that last mile was a very unique experience, to say the least. I was talking in my head saying, “Only a little…breathe in…bit left to … breathe out … go. I can…breathe in…make it to … breathe out …” that was how I drove the whole last mile to my house. I pulled in the driveway, walked into the house, and sat on the couch until my friend saw me and sat down by me and asked what was wrong. I explained what was going on, and she took me to the hospital.
At the hospital, I was taken back right away, put on an EKG, and everything else they could do for a person who might be having a heart attack. All those tests came back fine. The blood tests, however, did not. My magnesium was down to .4, and my potassium was at .6. I was admitted to the hospital, given both magnesium and potassium intravenously, and even a blood transfusion later that night. It turns out that the Cisplatin did not cause my kidneys to shut down like happens most often, it caused my kidneys to go toxic, expelling the magnesium and potassium as if they were normal toxins. Only 5% of the people getting Cisplatin get kidney toxicity. After several transfusions and much magnesium and potassium pills, I was done with my chemo treatments. My body could take no more. Believe it or not, I maintained my weight through all of these treatments. That also is not usual. I attribute being able to eat through all this by taking the anti-nausea medication every 8 hours instead of just “as needed”.
This was not the only problem that I had with my treatments, but the other problems were from radiation treatment, and that I will talk about later.
