Oof. What a night.

Well, the first night proved to be more interesting than I expected! Here's a painting I saw at the MoMA in New York City last year that does a pretty good job of summing up the last 24 hours.



OOF. (Yes, that's a real painting. I don't remember who the artist is.) That Campath stuff I talked about really messed with me. (For my fellow science geeks: click here for more information about Campath.) I was fine for most of the infusion, but then the weirdest things started to happen. Apparently everything I experienced was normal for someone receiving Campath, but they weren't normal for me, personally, so it was a little scary.

First, at around 10 pm, I started getting a fever, chills, tingling in my finger tips, and the shakes. Normally fevers are treated very seriously in oncology units, because they can be a sign of infection. So I got really scared initially. But since I was getting that Campath crap, they weren't too worried about it. Like I said, for the nurses it was normal. I got some drugs to treat the shakes and the fever, and they gave me a warm blanket to stop the chills. They took some blood samples, just to be sure that there was no infection - and there isn't one. Things started to look up after that. But then later in the night, I started getting really itchy and realized that I had hives all over me. Ugh! I got a syringe full of Benadryl, and that was that. I fell asleep for a few hours, finally. But a few hours was all I got. I woke up with a rapid heart rate in the wee hours of the morning. Campath can cause this and other heart problems, such as arrhythmia. My heart rate was above normal, but it was beating regularly (no arrhythmia), thankfully. Apparently some people have ended up in the ICU for heart and blood pressure issues while taking Campath. I have a few more days of it, but everyone says the first day is the worst, so I think things will get better. I started my next infusion of Campath moments ago, and am hoping for an easier night. The doctors and nurses check on me regularly, and have all been great.

Today I mostly just stayed in bed and rested. Last night left me pretty worn out. I'm watching the food network (my favorite) and thinking about all the things I'm going to cook when I get out of here. :-)

My friend Christina is coming to visit me tonight. She and I met at work several years ago, and have been good friends ever since. She's planning on bringing me some food from the outside world (gasp!) to have for dinner, while I can take advantage of such luxuries. And by luxuries, I mean an appetite, and being allowed to eat whatever I want...these things won't last long in here!

Hope you're all doing well. Much love.

P.S. A friend sent me this article today, and it's definitely worth a read. The author does a great job of articulating what it's like to go through some of this cancer stuff.