Vienna: Week 3

Well this week has definitely been the hardest week yet, which is probably leading into an even harder week. But all in the name of healing! I’m a tough cancer fighting warrior chick and nothing is going to hold me down. Or something like that like.

So let’s break it down this week…

Monday was once again my easy day. Blood tests, local hyperthermia and Vitamin C/ALA IVs.

Tuesday was my second immunotherapy day followed by 90 minutes of moderate whole body hyperthermia. This day usually starts off good. Netflix or reading helps to pass the 5 hours of IV time before I head to the hyperthermia bed. I started reading Amy Schumer’s Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo. Oh man, that book had me laughing so hard but I also felt slightly awkward sitting in a room full of old people reading a pretty crude book with a naked Amy Schumer on the front. I guess I’m just helping to bring some more life to the room.

I started feeling the nausea part way through the immunotherapy treatment again. By the time I got to the hyperthermia bed I wasn’t completely sure I’d make it through without barfing. Thankfully I did. Then managed to have my shower and head home.

Wednesday was my first chemotherapy treatment. When I first arrived at the clinic I had brought my tumor for testing. It was determined that Gemcitabine would be an effective treatment as well as Curcumin on the natural side of things. The chemo was given at a 50% dose and gemcitabine is supposed to be one of the easiest tolerated chemos so I wasn’t too worried. I didn’t seem to have any bad effects that day. Which is great because it was also Peter’s birthday on Wednesday!

It was a long day of treatment for me but I managed to run over to the bakery across from the clinic on the way home and picked up a delicious Truffle Torte to celebrate. We decided we’d go out for supper as well and picked the most Viennese place we knew…McDonald’s. Ok so perhaps we are less about authentic food and more about “where can we go that the kids won’t cry because they hate the food and we won’t get frustrated because we don’t know what the food is?” So yeah, McDonald’s for the win. Then home for delicious dessert. The pic doesn’t do it justice, and I didn’t get a chance to buy candles, but damn did it taste good!

Thursday was the day we brought in the big guns. Long duration hyperthermia under sedation. 6 hours in the hyperthermia chamber raising my body temp to 39°C. I was a little nervous as I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew how tough the 90 minutes could be, I couldn’t imagine 6 hours. But that’s where the sedation comes in.

The doctor explained the whole process to me. He told me my legs would have to be strapped down so that I didn’t move around while sedated and end up touching them to the heat lamps. I wanted to make sure that laying on my side was still possible though…nope. I had to be on my back the whole time. This put me into panic mode as I can’t lay on my back for more than 10-15 min without a lot of pain. He assured me I wouldn’t notice at all because of the sedation.

Once in the bed I was given a shot in my stomach and a shot in my ass (both hurt like a son-of-a-bitch!) then they gave me sedation through my port. The next thing I remember I was waking up super groggy and laying in the hyperthermia bed with it partially open and no heat on. Hooray for sedation! I missed all of the heat!

They made me lay in the bed for awhile longer and then I was finally allowed to get up. I felt completely drunk. The doctor made sure I could stand and walk on my own and then let me head to the shower. They asked if I had someone to come get me because I would be out of it for awhile. Unfortunately Peter had went exploring with the kids and I couldn’t get ahold of him.

I finished my shower and started to make my way home. Slowly. And very much looking like the town drunk. I stumbled most of the way home in the dark making some lovely zigzag patterns and then all of a sudden Peter and Ayla appeared as I was about to climb the stairs to cross the tracks. Thank goodness because there are a LOT of stairs and I’m not sure if this drunkard would have made it.

As soon as we walked in the door I immediately went to my bed and crashed. Peter kept asking me questions and like the drunk I was, I mumbled my answers and when he couldn’t understand my drunken slurs I became completely belligerent. Oh how he must have missed dealing with a drunken Leesa these last 6 months. Good times.

I slept straight through (minus a couple barf episodes) until 8am the next morning when I had to get up and be at my 9am appointment. Thankfully it was just local hyperthermia and IVs again so I could just nap through my appointment. After my IV was complete I quickly ran to throw up again and then caught sight of my appearance in the mirror. Good Lord!! My face was so puffy. It looked like I had a black eye and my one eyelid looked half shut. There would be no selfies happening today, that’s for sure.

I had my weekly meeting with Dr. Kleef and we chatted about blood results. Everything was still looking good however my cancer markers did go up. He told me to put that right out of my mind. The cancer markers are not the only thing we look at. He said that it can take months for any real changes to take place there and it had only been a couple weeks so I needed to stop worrying about things when there was no need to worry. He told me to trust him. And once again mentioned Terri and how Terri never had any doubt that he was going to get better. A positive attitude can make a world of difference and I needed to focus on the things that matter: my kids, my husband, the life I have with them and being in this beautiful city!

He was right of course and all I really wanted was his assurance that seeing those numbers didn’t mean everything. So once again I left his office feeling so much better and ready to take on the next set of treatments.

Of course I still had to get through this sickness… I came home and went back to bed to rest. Did some marathon Netflix watching, more barfing and really wishing I could eat some food that would stay down. But as crappy as those few days were, I never once felt the way I did with chemo. I knew I needed to rest, and I knew there would be throwing up, but it wasn’t the “never ending, hurts so bad I would do anything to make it stop” kind of sickness that chemo gave me. For this I was extremely grateful.

Saturday I felt a million times better. I managed to get some food down and the nausea was gone. I still used it as a rest day and stayed in and did some Netflix binging while Peter took the kids back to Prater. In hindsight, I should have got up and out of the apartment, but it just didn’t happen.

And then there’s today, the big day we’ve been waiting for, Laurie is coming! Laurie, my oldest friend (in time that I’ve known her, not age) will be staying with the kids at the apartment while Peter stays with me next week during fever week. I’m thankful I get to spend some time with her before I’m off for my treatments and the kids are extremely excited to be spending the week with her.

I’m not sure how I’ll be feeling next week to do updates as fever week means daily long duration hyperthermia with sedation. I may be fine, I may be a complete zombie the whole time. But as mentioned at the beginning of this blog, I imagine this will be my absolute hardest week yet. So please think of me and pray for me that I make it through without too much trouble. Also think of Laurie, pray for Laurie, a week with my kids is no easy task. Lord help her. 😜