Progress: Day 16.1

Today was my second of thirteen “maintenance” infusions of Herceptin. It was a pretty different experience from my first maintenance dose surprisingly. When I had my first maintenance dose on October 5th, I was only one week out from my chemotherapy. My labs were typical for the week after a chemo treatment and I felt drained after that Herceptin-only infusion even though I didn’t have all of the other stuff that went along with it.

Instead, my labs were totally normal! In about three weeks everything has completely rebounded and my blood counts and metabolic panel are fairly normal again. And, maybe it was just because I ordered a full-caffeine iced latte, but I wasn’t so exhausted at the end of my infusion. We will have to see what the next couple of days bring to see if I have any other side effects, but hopefully I can expect these infusions to be fairly uneventful!

Ativan

While I was waiting for my infusion, I wanted to ask the nurse about Ativan. I noticed at one of my chemo treatments that my patient record had me slotted to receive Ativan, but I never did. I had asked one of my previous nurses about Ativan, but she just told me about it and her experience with patients who received it but never actually said why I didn’t receive it. Also, when I was talking with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Oncologist for my second opinion, she told me that I could rely on getting my Ativan to make adjusting to my cooling cap easier.

Ativan is the brand name for Lorazepam, which is a benzodiazepine. Benzodiazepines were one of the original medications to treat anxiety and seizures (Valium is another example). They are depressants so they lower your brain activity and decrease some of your body functions to chill you out. My nurse today, Susan, told me that it is at the nurse’s discretion to give me the Ativan. Some patients come in and they are so nervous they are uncomfortably nauseous or throwing up. It’s also possible that she meant they give it when people feel super sick and not necessarily afraid. She figured that I must have come in seeming pretty calm and normal, so they would have never given me the Ativan. Also, they tend to dislike giving it because they have to give us the Benadryl to prevent any kind of adverse allergic reaction from the chemo drugs. Since both of the drugs act to depress your system, you basically get super doped up and they worry about your breathing.

So that’s why I never received Ativan! I don’t really care and I agree I don’t think I needed it. I just found the whole thing interested and wanted to understand why it was on my list of medications despite never receiving it. Now I know!

Other goings-ons

Maddie had school pictures taken and I was so excited to see them. We were finally notified that they were available and I was kind of bummed. Her school switched to a different vendor and they charge $36 per digital copy for the photographs! That’s so much more expensive than the previous company. The previous company would normally take 4 different poses and it would cost $89 for the digital rights for the 4 photographs plus 13 prints. The new place charges $129 just for the rights to the 4 digital images! It’s $78 for 6 prints! That’s absolutely outrageous in my opinion.

On a happier note, it looks like we are preparing for another eventful weekend! Tomorrow we are going to the UMBC Alumni Awards, because Sean is the co-chair for that committee and they are recognizing their 2022 Alumni Award recipients. Maddie will have the opportunity to hang out with Grandmom Rainee and Grandpop all by herself!

On Friday my parents will be arriving to stay for a bit since it’s looking like I will be starting radiation next week. They also want to see Maddie for Halloween. I’m thinking we should do something fun for fall or Halloween on Saturday and then we have another kiddo birthday party on Sunday. Sean and I do not have costumes and I’m not really sure what I’d be. We were thinking about maybe doing some easy DIY costumes that would go along with Maddie’s Moana costume. Maybe Sean would be Hei Hei the Chicken and I would be Tomato the Crab (since he’s awesome). Ginny could be the pig, Pua! I guess we will have to see!