Bad Side Effects Again

Today is Saturday.

Thursday, Dan was sent home with the 5FU chemo ball to administer chemo for 48 hours.  If you read my previous posts, you would know that he had a bad reaction (similar to a heart attack...and ongoing for hours) the last time he took it and ended up in the hospital for two days.  This time, he had been taking meds to prepare for this treatment to either avoid or minimize the side effects he experienced before.  It didn't work.

9 hours later into his treatment he again felt the tingling in his left arm and the pain in his chest and shortness of breath.  This type of side effects mimics a heart attack.  Imagine going through that every 30 to 60 minutes for HOURS.  At 5:00am, Dan had enough and stopped the catheter from feeding additional chemo into his body.  He couldn't take it anymore.  It was so bad that he was taking nitroglycerin every hour up to 3 hours.  That is not good.  Too much nitroglycerin can cause an actual heart attack or stroke.  I was scared for him and thankfully I was going to work from home that day so I was able to just stay there and keep a very close eye on him and decided not to work at all.  I needed to be watch him like a hawk in case I needed to administer CPR or rush him to emergency.  Thankfully, it never came to that.

He called the home nurse as he wanted the catheter removed from his port.  She came yesterday.  Dan also called the cancer center to let them know what happened.  We also needed to call back the Rx at the center as we were looking into pills opposed to the chemo ball treatment.  Dan would take them 2x day for two weeks.  At least it would feed the chemo to him slowly opposed to 48 hours, like the chemo ball.  Maybe then he wouldn't experience such harsh side effects.

We can't believe the cardiologists thought it would be okay for him to continue on the 5FU chemo knowing he had issues on it before and he has a heart defect (twisted valve).  And they originally scheduled his heart ultrasound for February 14th but the center is going to try to move that up.

We are so glad that the meds he has here helped him so that he did not have to go to the hospital again.  Dan said he was "working through it" to avoid that.

Meanwhile, Dan was experiencing on and off pain all day yesterday and didn't eat all day.  The last time he ate was Thursday afternoon.  Thankfully he was able to eat a bit this morning.  He felt a little "weird" again so he stopped eating but then resumed again.  Sometimes food does that to him after experiencing a day of these episodes.  He has been drinking a lot of water.  This helps move the toxins from his body faster.  He feels better today, I'm happy to report.  He still had on/off pain until 1am this morning.  It was only then he was able to sleep.  He usually wakes around 8am under normal circumstances.  I knew he probably would sleep in longer after his ordeal but a come 9am, I decided to sneak into his bedroom to make sure he was breathing.  Please god, let him be okay!

Today Dan weighs 185 (with clothes on).  He keeps losing weight.  I know that's another chemo side effect, but I hate it!

It's difficult for Dan to want to talk to people during his treatments so please be patient and don't be upset if he doesn't pick up when you call, call you back or respond to texts.  Think of your worst sick day you've ever had.  You don't want to be bothered right?  That is how he feels. 😔

But he does so appreciate the love and support.  And our dining room table is filling up with cards!  You all are so wonderful and thank you!! 💞