February 24, 2006

It was a long day and I'm really tired, but it went fine.

Today, I started 2 chemo treatments (Carboplatin and Taxotere) and 1 immuno-therapy (Herceptin). Each of three drugs is infused individually in sequence through an IV in my newly implanted port. The first one was Herceptin and it was scheduled to take 90 minutes. Next was Taxotere which took 60 minutes, then Carboplatin for 30 minutes. The whole works was preceded by about 30 minutes of pre-medication including antihistamine to reduce chances of reactions.

The only real challenge was that I fell into the 40 percent of patients who experience a reaction to Herceptin. I gradually got colder until suddenly, I was shivering and started a low fever. (It was shortly after Todd left the room to move around, so it must have been his fault.) Interestingly, what they did to stop the reaction was add 100 mg of Benadryl (a huge quantity of the most common antihistamine) to my IV. It stopped the reaction almost instantly. The problem is that Benadryl causes drowsiness, I lost my ability to stay alert and speak properly instantly too. It took about ½ hour for me to be back on the fringes of the real world. Since I had gotten about 2/3 of the dose of Herceptin, they did not attempt to finish it. They just went on to the chemo drugs once I was done reacting. Next time, the dose of Herceptin will be half of today's and they'll give me more Benadryl to start with, so I shouldn't have a problem again.

Any of you who have taken a large dose of Benadryl know that I am in a FOG. I keep catching myself writing the wrong words…I've had to edit a lot to get this to be readable (I hope). I think I'll go to sleep now…