Day -4

The topic for today's blog post is medications.

Meds mess up the best laid plans.

I hadn't slept well Tuesday night (pre-admission nerves) or Wednesday night (lots of interruptions plus a new setting), so last night was gonna be my night!

Last night I ate dinner relatively early and ate everything I ordered, realizing it was probably the steroids kicking in. (No steroids on Wednesday; got them at 5 am yesterday) When I took dexamethasone during my AC chemo for breast cancer treatment, my chemo (and pre-meds) were in the afternoon, so I crashed the night of chemo and then had steroid energy the following day. I loved it! Unfortunately with getting the pre-meds at 5 am, my steroid energy hit me at about 9 pm last night. When I was still awake at midnight for vitals and labs, the nurse suggested I take some Ativan, which is prescribed for anxiety, but also helps with sleep. She did warn me that taking it that late at night might make me groggy in the morning, but I felt like I needed sleep.

So I finally fell asleep about 1 am. Vitals at 4:00. Fell back asleep, then woke up with a start at 6:20 because I hadn't gotten my pre-meds and chemo. It turns out that the Busulfan only needs to be given at 6 am the first day so that labs can be drawn and sent off in time. So today (and the next two days) I get it closer to 8:00 am. Still, I was up for the day by then, and hooked up to chemo and chewing ice chips until 11:00. And definitely groggy for much of the morning.

The Busulfan is a stronger (myeloablative) chemo that has lots of lovely side effects, including nausea, so they are giving me twice as much Zofran as I previously took (12 mg vs. 6 mg). And Zofran screws up my GI tract, so I get to take meds for that, too.

I'm (just over) halfway through the chemos. Moving right along.

Still, despite having my schedule all funky, I feel pretty good! I did 20 total laps of the unit (about 2.5 mile walk) and did 4.5 miles (intervals) on the exercise bike. I've been goaded into trying to complete FIVE marrow-thons, as the guy released yesterday apparently was the one who completed four during his stay. It's really hard to turn down a challenge. I guess I need to sleep less so I can exercise more. LOL

The 9th floor of the Center for Advanced Care is almost brand new. The rooms are all freshly painted and bright and things all work. LOL. And another cool thing about 9CFAC--it seems like half of the staff is pregnant. :) And there's this on the floor:

It makes my lactation counselor heart happy. :)