For the past 26 months, I’ve been getting IV chemo either weekly or every few weeks. Since on my third remission, I am on fast-rate, high-dose IV chemo every 56 days (not quite every 2 months).
I can tolerate the IV chemo, but it causes my blood pressure to plummet and stay at 80/55, to get a sore throat and post-nasal drip, and to generally feel like “sh!t warmed over” for a day or two.
Ping-Chan Tsui (my Oncology nurse) is getting comfortable with me doing my own blood draws when necessary, and got a little concerned about my blood pressure and appearance yesterday… I was fine, just fatigued going on utterly exhausted.
I slept all day yesterday afternoon and last night, finally feeling semi-human again at 5:30 this morning.
I have a private room each time I go to Kaiser or Hopkins now. My neutrophil and white blood cell counts are never getting any better, so I am ALWAYS neutropenic and lymphopenic.
This also means if you so much as cough on me or sneeze on me, I will spend the next week hospitalized getting IV antibiotics.