Another Rough Trip to Boston

Unfortunately, I'm grateful that I did not travel alone to Boston these past few days. Over the past week, I have began to get nauseous about 1-2 hours after taking my chemo pills. My p.m. dose on Tuesday kept me up until around 3 a.m. Wednesday. That morning I took my a.m. dose after having eaten some fresh fruit in the airport. Well, the fruit and anything else came up on the plane. Thank goodness for those little airplane baggies. I was able to drink some water and take a few more of my pain meds throughout the day but was definitely not in top form. My p.m. dose of chemo on Wednesday is when things took a turn for the worse. Slightly over 1 hour after taking my chemo, I vomited again and couldn't keep water down. Because of this, I couldn't take my 10pm pain meds or my 6am pain meds on Thursday morning.

Because of missing these two sessions of pain medication, I started suffering slight withdrawals from the medication along with a pain the I hadn't experienced before. Thursday morning was spent in the CRC with an IV of fluids, pain medication and anti-nausea medicine to level me out. I was given a dose of chemo while in the CRC which I was able to keep down with no problem. Not wanting a repeat of the plane ride on Wednesday, I chose not to take the chemo this morning as we traveled back to Iowa and will take my p.m. dose this evening and see how that goes.

There have also been some changes to my pain medication. The regiment that I was on wasn't quite cutting it so they have taken me off the morphine and I will now be on methadone. Apparently methadone has a longer half-life and should stay in my system longer as well as help more with the nerve pain in my chest. The neurontin has been increased 50% and the addition of Ritalin to help keep me awake as nearly every drug I'm on makes me drowsy and I've found it hard to concentrate at work sometime. So... more pills for my pills I guess.

Next visit to Boston is in 2 weeks and will include a CT scan.

In closing:
Everyone's continued support has done nothing short of amaze me. Those of you that surround me each day, that read this blog, that offer your prayers and kind words are what make getting through this battle possible. Never before have I seen such goodness in people. I admit, the level of discomfort I experienced while unable to take my pain medication caused my resolve to waiver. I felt beaten. It was each and every one of you that helped push me through that.

Cherish the small things in life. Right down to being able to draw a breath without pain.