Chemo - Day 2

February 27, 2009

I thought today was a pretty good day. I woke up feeling less nauseated. I have to take 3 or 4 medicines in the morning, at 4pm and at bedtime, so I'm sure that helped. At about 1pm my Mom and Dad took me back to Dr. K's office for my shot of Neulasta. Neulasta is a drug that I receive the day after my Chemo treatment (on day 2) and it revs up my white blood count. The side-effects (other than burning when being injected into my stomach) are bone aches. Which makes sense... It is making you bone marrow work overtime to bring you white blood cells back up in a shorter amount of time.

Normally, my white blood cells would get back to their normal amount in about 20-21 days. That is not good if my treatments are every 14 days. With Neulasta, it will take 5-7 days to bring my white cells back up. Okay, what is a little bone pain right??

After my shot, I went up to the next floor in the same building for physical therapy. It was a little tiring, not so much because of the chemo, but because my power port was killing my shoulder. I did that for about an hour and slept on the way home.

Later that night, I could feel my long bones aching (my hips, femurs, sternum). I could tell that this was not going to feel good at all. My muscles were also starting to become very sore and ache (that is a side-effect from the chemo). I went to bed a little early.