Chemo Drama Week 6

Well I've had a much easier round of chemo since January 1st. It's been a real blessing. BUT..this week was BAD! This week something was going on with my veins and it was HORRIBLE! I was like a red light/green light nightmare where my IV just kept stopping! It would drip and then not and then drip and then stop. We had to find creative ways to keep the IV going. When I got my Taxol bag (the last bag which is the chemo drug) it worked for awhile and then all of a sudden I started getting a really cold feeling in my arm. I freaked out as the pain increased and starting screaming for my nurse!! I panicked...I should have shut off the IV but it didn't occur to me at the time. What happened was the chemo started dripping too fast (they think) and so it infiltrated my tissue in my arm. Essentially it burst out of my vein. All I can say is OUCH!! It hurt so badly. The nurses started flushing the line with saline and I just told them it was so totally painful, I couldn't stand it anymore. They took the IV lines out and I held my arm above my head for awhile. They tried 2 more times with different veins and finally found a vein on my hand that worked well. Well, better than the first vein but this vein was small and so the chemo took FOREVER!! What should have taken 45 minutes took an hour and 40 minutes!! I was at chemo literally all day long. It was awful.

All week my arm has hurt and when I got home and took the bandage off I found a very red and swollen area of my arm where it was full of fluid (chemo) that was swelling. The nurses told me my body would absorb it, which it has since the bruise/swelling is gone. Needless to say I'm nervous about tomorrow's treatment though! Yikes..I'm glad to say I'm HALFWAY DONE with Chemotherapy! YEAHOOO!!! Here's some pages I did during my 'free time' on Saturday afternoon. Enjoy!