It was chemo day at the hospital yesterday, and things didn’t quite go to plan.
My day started with a breakfast of a plate of various tablets, some fruit juice and cornflakes with ice-cold milk – about the only food that I’ve been able to tolerate all the way through. So far, so good…
Treatment started at 8.30am with an anti-sickness tablet, followed by the full round of chemotherapy infusions: Docetaxel and Carboplatin, both part of my breast cancer treatment and each reduced by 20% this time in an attempt to ward off the worst of the side effects; Zoledronic Acid to reduce the risk of breast cancer spreading to my bones; and plenty of Ondansetron, an anti-sickness drug, with general fluids in between.
Plus the rather nasty Phesgo – a combination of drugs designed to stop the cancer cells dividing and growing – given as a slow injection into my thigh. This takes about ten minutes, and I mustn’t flinch when it starts to sting!!
All went well until it was time for the “extra” two-hour magnesium infusion, as my magnesium level is still too low.
About half an hour in, when I’d had roughly 25% of the infusion, my heart rate suddenly decided to go completely bonkers – shooting from its usual 65–70 bpm to nearly 200 bpm and setting of an alarm on the ECG monitor 😳
My nurse reacted right away by turning off the drip and calling the emergency registrar up from A&E to asses me. He prescribed some special magic medication which thankfully made my heart rate return to normal almost immediately.
The magnesium drip was eventually restarted at a much slower rate, and fortunately my heart rate behaved itself for the rest of the afternoon.
It turned into a very long day and I was finally allowed home at 6pm – fortunately I didn’t have to stay in overnight!!
I’m generally OK this morning, although unsurprisingly I’m still feeling pretty tired. It’s been quite a week already…
There are now only two more full chemo sessions planned, and I have another oncology appointment on 23rd September.
Hopefully there’ll be some more news then. 🤞
For now, I’m just pleased that my heart has remembered what it’s supposed to be doing ❤️
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