My infusion nurse came in shortly after and asked about my legs and hands. I told her my legs were the lesser issue of the two; they still feel tired and stiff, maybe even more so since starting the exemestane, but mostly they just make me feel like an old person. I'm doing additional leg stretches every day, but still, any time I get up to stand, it feels like I've been in one position for hours, even if it's only been a few minutes.
Then I told her all about my hands, my observations and how I've been managing the symptoms. She said it sounded like the symptoms were "taking over my life", by which she meant, the symptoms aren't getting worse, they may even be getting better, but only because I'm following all these rules all day (e.g., sleeping in specific positions, doing my morning routine, limiting my arm and hand use to ward off the tingling). She said it sounded exhausting, and not sustainable, and we need to try to figure out how to address the root problem.
Around this time, my nurse stepped out to take a call from my medical oncologist. Not the new one, but my original one, who is still working at the Cancer Center through February. When she came back, she said my doctor wants to see me for an appointment, to try to get a handle on what's going on with my hands. I scheduled it for next week.
My medical oncologist also suggested a one-time dose of Lasix (general name furosemide), a pill that would make me pee a lot, to help eliminate excess fluid. The idea is, if my symptoms are from nerves being crowded because of swelling, let's see if reducing the swelling can improve the symptoms. It might also help me to figure out if the discomfort I feel when making fists, and a new pain I sometimes have in the joints of my thumbs, are from swelling or joint pain (a side effect of exemestane). I took the pill this afternoon, so we'll see how things feel tomorrow morning.
My nurse accessed my port around 11:00. She said she would draw blood to see if anything in my blood work could help explain the swelling, or at least rule things out.
I told her that I've been thinking about getting my port out after all. We're thinking of taking a trip later this summer, between my treatments, and I'm uneasy about travelling too far from my Cancer Center with a sort of open wound that is at risk of infection. She agreed that it would make sense to get the port out, maybe in April, giving me a couple months to heal before the summer. She counted out the number of remaining treatments for which I would need to get an IV in my arm, and she even put a tourniquet on my left arm to count the accessible veins. She said it would be "totally doable". (The IV would be limited to just my left arm, where I had 1 lymph node removed, to minimize the risk of lymphedema on my right side, where I had 5 lymph nodes removed.)
I started the Herceptin at 11:30, and finished around 12:00.
I went in for my physical therapy appointment around 12:30. She re-measured my arms and found that they are less swollen than they were last time, but still swollen compared to my original measurements.
She had some ideas for helping to alleviate the swelling in my hands, like kinesio taping and compression sleeves (even if I don't technically have lymphedema). We decided to first see how the Lasix works out, and also see if my doctor has any other ideas, but it was reassuring to know that there are a number of options still in the wings if we need them.
We talked a bit about how I'm not even sure if some of the discomfort in my hands could be from joint pain, rather than swelling. She did say that joint pain, as a side effect of exemestane, does commonly appear in fingers and thumbs.
She worked on my cording, which continues to improve. She'll be away next week, and I hope my cording won't get worse without the weekly massage. I'll have to be sure to keep up my stretching!
Finally, she had me do some exercises to try to isolate the source of some of the hand tingling. It didn't seem like she could make any clear conclusions, but she did give me one more exercise to do to help relieve tension along my spine.
All told, I think I spent almost an hour in physical therapy today. I left the Cancer Center around 1:30, so it was a 3-hour visit.
Oh, I wanted to mention. During my infusion, my nurse brought me a free gift. Quite frequently, the Cancer Center receives donations to give to cancer patients. People can be so nice! Today's gift was a toiletry/cosmetic bag filled with little useful items.
My posts are usually so focused on my medical journey that I guess I'd forgotten to post about these little gifts. This is actually the third free gift I've gotten. The other two were both like free sample kits from Beautycounter.
Around this time, my nurse stepped out to take a call from my medical oncologist. Not the new one, but my original one, who is still working at the Cancer Center through February. When she came back, she said my doctor wants to see me for an appointment, to try to get a handle on what's going on with my hands. I scheduled it for next week.
My medical oncologist also suggested a one-time dose of Lasix (general name furosemide), a pill that would make me pee a lot, to help eliminate excess fluid. The idea is, if my symptoms are from nerves being crowded because of swelling, let's see if reducing the swelling can improve the symptoms. It might also help me to figure out if the discomfort I feel when making fists, and a new pain I sometimes have in the joints of my thumbs, are from swelling or joint pain (a side effect of exemestane). I took the pill this afternoon, so we'll see how things feel tomorrow morning.
My nurse accessed my port around 11:00. She said she would draw blood to see if anything in my blood work could help explain the swelling, or at least rule things out.
I told her that I've been thinking about getting my port out after all. We're thinking of taking a trip later this summer, between my treatments, and I'm uneasy about travelling too far from my Cancer Center with a sort of open wound that is at risk of infection. She agreed that it would make sense to get the port out, maybe in April, giving me a couple months to heal before the summer. She counted out the number of remaining treatments for which I would need to get an IV in my arm, and she even put a tourniquet on my left arm to count the accessible veins. She said it would be "totally doable". (The IV would be limited to just my left arm, where I had 1 lymph node removed, to minimize the risk of lymphedema on my right side, where I had 5 lymph nodes removed.)
I started the Herceptin at 11:30, and finished around 12:00.
I went in for my physical therapy appointment around 12:30. She re-measured my arms and found that they are less swollen than they were last time, but still swollen compared to my original measurements.
She had some ideas for helping to alleviate the swelling in my hands, like kinesio taping and compression sleeves (even if I don't technically have lymphedema). We decided to first see how the Lasix works out, and also see if my doctor has any other ideas, but it was reassuring to know that there are a number of options still in the wings if we need them.
We talked a bit about how I'm not even sure if some of the discomfort in my hands could be from joint pain, rather than swelling. She did say that joint pain, as a side effect of exemestane, does commonly appear in fingers and thumbs.
She worked on my cording, which continues to improve. She'll be away next week, and I hope my cording won't get worse without the weekly massage. I'll have to be sure to keep up my stretching!
Finally, she had me do some exercises to try to isolate the source of some of the hand tingling. It didn't seem like she could make any clear conclusions, but she did give me one more exercise to do to help relieve tension along my spine.
All told, I think I spent almost an hour in physical therapy today. I left the Cancer Center around 1:30, so it was a 3-hour visit.
Oh, I wanted to mention. During my infusion, my nurse brought me a free gift. Quite frequently, the Cancer Center receives donations to give to cancer patients. People can be so nice! Today's gift was a toiletry/cosmetic bag filled with little useful items.
My posts are usually so focused on my medical journey that I guess I'd forgotten to post about these little gifts. This is actually the third free gift I've gotten. The other two were both like free sample kits from Beautycounter.
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