13 E-mail: my first complication

4/10/2006

It’s been a busy day today. I’ve (we’ve) been taking care of what has become my first complication related to treating my disease and it has taken the entire day.

It started Saturday when my left arm, the one with the port, began hurting. I noticed that it hurt to raise it above my head. By Sunday it hurt more and I noticed with alarm that the veins in my arm and chest were bright blue. What I mean is that the veins on the left side only were bright blue and the right side looked normal. This morning I realized that my left hand was quite swollen AND my arm hurt to raise it above my head AND my veins were still bright blue.

As soon as the cancer center opened at 8:30 this morning, I called the oncology nurse and told her about my symptoms. She got me in to see the nurse practitioner this morning and the nurse said it sounded like a blood clot. She ordered a sonogram. Guy took the day off today so he drove me to my appointments and took care of Kelric while I met with the nurse and then went to a lab facility to get my arm scanned. I got to have ultrasound goop smeared all the way from my neck to my wrist. A radiologist looked at the scan results and confirmed that I have at least one blood clot in my arm. (It sounded to me like I have more than one but I didn’t ask for clarification so I’m not sure.) Back to the cancer center I went to get the first of a series of daily shots, with a quick side trip back to the house to grab another bottle first. Today’s shot introduces a medicine that tells my body to stop producing clots. It’s not a blood thinner. It just prevents new clots to allow my body to get rid of the existing clots in my arm. Sounds like I had better not get a cut anytime soon.

Meanwhile, my dosage of Coumadin (a blood thinner) has been increased from 1 MG a day to 10 MG for 2 days followed by 7.5 MG for 3 days to kick start my system into thinner blood to prevent new clots like the one(s) that scared me so badly this weekend. When we figure out the dosage that puts me where they want me, it will take my blood 2 to 3 times as long as a regular person to form blood clots. I get to look forward to a lot of lab work over the next few weeks as they monitor the affects of the Coumadin, not to mention daily injections for at least the rest of this week for the anti-clotting stuff. If the clot(s) isn’t/aren’t gone by Friday’s lab I am supposed to give myself injections Saturday and Sunday. Great. Just great.

I didn’t feel very fragile before, health wise. Now I have to be extra careful. I’ve become a porcelain doll. I need to avoid getting sick, doing anything to cause myself to bleed, and my “good” arm has become my “bad” arm for a while as I’m supposed to avoid lifting heavy things with my left arm. Heavy things. Um…that probably includes lifting the stroller in and out of the car. It probably includes the car seat with the baby in it. Technically it includes the baby but nobody expects me to stop lifting him. He weighs about 8 pounds now and still growing like a weed. He’s been a fussy monster this evening but he was a little angel for most of the day today while we hauled him all around town.

I laughed when the nurse going through a list of possible symptoms asked this morning if I felt fatigued. Kelric kept waking up all night so we got maybe 2-3 hours of sleep. Of course I felt fatigued, but who can say what part relates to having a newborn and what contributes to the arm problems? I told her as much and we shared a chuckle. Guy feels just as tired and he’s been fighting a migraine all day. I’d have gotten more sleep last night but at times my arm hurt so much it kept me from falling back asleep until I took Tylenol.

On the positive side, I contacted a fellow breast cancer patient going through chemo tonight. This woman is part of the group of younger breast cancer survivors I’m looking to join. She has a toddler and she’s also 34. Just making that connection with someone going through the same drama was helpful. It lifted my spirits. This new group’s first meeting is next week and I’m looking forward to going. I don’t know how many women are part of it, but it sounds like there’s a handful and most of them have children.

Today was a long day of waiting and of dealing with unpleasant stuff, but I’m excited to have found a reason for this weekend’s discomfort and I’m happy to be on the path to doing something to fix it.

Angela

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