Treatment: 11 of 12

Treatment day

Treatment day was exciting! My cubby area was incredibly busy today with a lot of activity. But even more exciting… only one more treatment left! It’s hard to believe I’m so close to the end. I’m pretty sure that radiation is going to be pretty challenging, too, but I will just be so happy to have this portion of the journey over with.

When we got to the hospital, you could just tell that something wasn’t going well. I had a new nurse today, Judy. She introduced herself to us by basically telling us that she was a significant fall risk. It was not very encouraging to hear your nurse tell you that there was a strong possibility she was going to injure herself on the job! She actually was really great though and her first impression ended up not being representative of the overall experience.

The morning was pretty quiet, but we could tell that it seemed the unit was understaffed. Before they give me my Herceptin and Taxol, they have to do this two-person verification of me with the drugs to ensure they are giving me the correct medication and dosage. Judy’s boss actually came in to be the second person, which doesn’t normally happen. It was at this time that her boss told me that three nurses had called out that day, confirming my suspicion that they were understaffed.

Things didn’t really get interesting until they gave me my Benadryl and I was kind of out of it. But a lady catty-corner to my cubby started to get upset. She was angry that they weren’t giving her the correct medications. She was upset that either they didn’t think she knew what medications she normally receives, that they were not giving her the medication she was supposed to have or that she had previously been given medication she shouldn’t have been given. She was really loud and yelling and I’m sure it was super stressful. I can also empathize with her, because she was there all alone and I don’t exactly know what she was going through but no one is there for anything fun. But I know all the nurses I have had there have seemed very competent and they are trying to do what is right by the patients. I’m sure everyone was equally as frustrated. Luckily, they talked her into staying and they must have figured things out, but it was a bit tense!

Next the lady next to me was just having a good, relaxing time until one of the nurses became worried about her breathing. I was drugged up, but I heard a somewhat humorous exchange. The nurse asked her, “Are you allergic to cats?” The poor lady must have been somewhat hard of hearing because she just asks, “Cats? Cats?” And then the nurse replies with, “Yes, cats. Anna thinks you might be allergic to cats.” Then the lady replies, “I have a cat. He’s a good cat.” That’s it. So they never got to the bottom of her cat allergy, because the whole thing escalated to her wheezing. Then more nurses come in until there’s about five nurses in there and they are badgering her with questions like, “Are you choking on something?” “Did you just eat something?” “Are you normally like this?” Finally, they decided to send her down for a chest x-ray to look at her lungs! Yikes! It was just so much activity! The poor lady seemed like her day was going so smoothly until all of that happened to her.

Finally, the lady across from me found out her treatment wasn’t going as well as they had hoped. She had a lot of complaints about the side effects of her treatment so the nurses were in and out of there a lot. It was really quite sad and I felt very bad for her. I don’t tell these stories with the intent to make fun of these individuals. I have sympathy for what each of these individuals is going through. It can get pretty emotional going through all of this. And maybe, sometimes, you just have to find a bit of humor in the craziness of this whole experience. But that lady completed the total craziness and overactivity of my cubby area. I suppose this treatment has given me a new appreciation not just for my own uneventful treatment days, but how uneventful the day was for all of the people around me in the unit. I hope my last treatment is uneventful for me and for all of my chemo compatriots.

At the end of the day, I had an appointment with my oncologist. He was impressed with how well my hair has been holding up with the scalp cooling and he told me that I wouldn’t start my Tamoxifen until after my radiation treatment was completed. I had my last Zoladex injection during treatment. Luckily, that timing will allow for this latest Zoladex injection to wear off before I start the Tamoxifen. He also told me that my side effects might not be quite as bad with the Tamoxifen because it doesn’t block all of my estrogen, progesterone and testosterone production. While it has a lot of systemic effects and similar side effects, it primarily acts to block estrogen uptake in breast cells.

Overall, my treatment was pretty uneventful again. My nurse told me I was the “star” of the day – probably because I just came in, got my infusions and left. Nothing exciting with me! Although my treatment was pretty smooth, I felt much more worn out after this one than all of my previous ones. I was just so tired and all I wanted to do was lay down.

The day after

I had another good night of sleep and was able to get up and ride. It is September, which means that it is time for Zwift Academy! The virtual cycling platform I use holds a special event every year where they create a training camp. Because it collects so much data on your cadence, heart rate and power, they can essentially see how people perform very precisely. So in addition to the joy of completing the entire event, there is also the chance of securing a pro contract if your stats are good enough! The women’s Canyon/SRAM Racing team and the men’s ALPECIN-DECEUNINCK team hold a competition by monitoring people’s performance during Zwift Academy and then holding a final evaluation to select new members for their respective teams! It’s actually really cool!

I have done Zwift Academy for the last four years and I don’t want to stop this year! This morning was a little aggravating because I had a software hiccup and it wasn’t keeping my Bluetooth connections active in the middle of one of the live group-rides. Unfortunately, I had to bail on the ride and couldn’t rejoin, so I just did one of the workouts instead. That’s the most frustrating thing about virtual cycling – when your equipment malfunctions. I suppose it’s similar to when you go out on a bike ride and then you get a flat tire only a few miles into your ride.

Only one more week and then this will all be behind me!