What might be making you a tad apprehensive, but might not, as it's too soon to tell

[orthodoc]

Thanks. I can do this, with a little help from my friends.

[limey]

Sending a big pile of help for the next step.
You already have the Lucky Hat :thumbup:
Sent by thought transference.

[glatt]

Hope your day is going well, orthodoc. Good luck.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Anxiously awaited the good news. It will be good, you'll tell us your trepidation was for naught.

[BigV]

dude, you're treppin'

[orthodoc]

Thanks, guys. It went well today - no anaphylaxis, hooray! Some side effects but not too bad. I'm so tired tonight - shouldn't be tired this soon, but it is what it is. Maybe letdown of stress. Thanks so much for all your good wishes, and the many kindnesses. The first is over and I'll see through the next week how things go, and that will tell the tale for the rest. So far, so good.

[footfootfoot]

Our family motto is, "When the going gets tough, the tough get napping."

Sleep is awesome!

[BigV]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

Our family motto is, "When the going gets tough, the tough get napping."

Sleep is awesome!

Sleep is awesome. Plus it prevents diabetes. Kinda.

Sleep deprivation caused a 30% decline in the insulin sensitivity of fat cells of healthy, lean young adults, according to a study in the Oct. 6 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

Restricting sleep for 4 nights markedly impaired the phosphorylation of Akt within the adipocytes in subcutaneous fat, which is a crucial early step in the pathway that mediates most of insulin's metabolic action. "This finding identifies for the first time a molecular mechanism that may be involved in the reduction in total-body insulin sensitivity consistently observed in multiple laboratory studies of partial sleep deprivation in healthy adults," said Josiane L. Broussard, Ph.D., and her associates at the University of Chicago.

--snip--

Insufficient sleep is known to raise the risk of metabolic disturbances, particularly insulin resistance, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. But "to our knowledge, no studies to date have linked sleep restriction to alterations in molecular metabolic pathways in any peripheral human tissue." Dr. Broussard and her colleagues examined whether experimental sleep restriction would reduce insulin sensitivity in subcutaneous fat, "a peripheral tissue that is a key site of insulin action and plays a pivotal role in energy metabolism as well as in the communication of energy balance to the brain."

Six men and one woman aged 18-30 years (mean age 23.7 years) who were healthy and lean were selected from the community as study subjects. All reported routine sleep times of 7.5-8.5 hours/night. All underwent overnight polysomnography to ensure they had no sleep disorders, standard glucose tolerance testing to rule out any occult disorders of insulin metabolism, and standard laboratory tests to rule out any other problem that could affect either sleep or metabolism.

These subjects were then assessed under two experimental sleep conditions in randomized order: after 4 consecutive nights of 8.5 hours of normal sleep and after 4 consecutive nights of 4.5 hours of restricted sleep. The subjects lived as sedentary inpatients during these experiments, with strictly controlled diets that were identical under the two sleep conditions.

[Trilby]

I'm so glad things went well for you, ortho!

I think of you every day and hope you are feeling okay and getting enough rest.

And soup! Soup is good for an upset system and it sootheth the soul-eth.

[orthodoc]

Thanks, Tril! Rest is a definite problem; haven't slept well, i.e. more than 90 min at a time with 2-hour breaks between, since Aug. I get lots of reading done, though! The anti-emetics they have now are amazing. Sitting here in the infusion center waiting to get my Neulasta shot so I'll see if I'm in the 30% who get nasty bone pain with it. Thinking positive thoughts.

[Trilby]

You know - I got the nasty bone pain but my onco told me it was the Taxotere and NOT the Neulasta that did it --- !!! I wish these people would get their shit straight.

Honey, not to frighten you, but I DID have significant bone pain - a kind of gnawing continuous pain. It wasn't that the pain in and of itself was unbearable - it was - it was just that it never let up. I would soak in the hottest tub water I could so my legs would stop aching for 20 min. and I'd try to get to sleep before the hot water effects stopped. Get the percocet. I suffered unneccessairily for three days before I gave up and went to the ED for IV dilaudid which didn't even get me high but just, mercifully, relieved the pain. Don't suffer. If you are opiate naive you might be ok with vicodin or even vic 7.5 - I am highly tolerant to opiates and I needed percocets. don't suffer. it's not worth it.

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by orthodoc

The anti-emetics they have now are amazing.

Are you getting that amazingly expensive anti-emetic - i forget what it's called, but it's like 300.00 PER PILL? I got a voucher for that and got three free ones but didn't need them. A friend of mine with breast cancer DID get super nauseous on her regime (which was different from mine) and they did her some good. Kept her out of the hospital for IV fluids, anyway.

My taste went about two weeks after chemo. Even water tasted funny. Try lemon drops candies to help counteract that tin-like taste.

[orthodoc]

Double checking the Taxotere info - it does cause bone pain too. Maybe there's a synergistic effect with Neulasta, who knows? At least an additive effect. I do have some pain meds in case of need. Both the nausea (as the anti-emetics wear off - they gave me stuff that lasts 48 hours) and the bone pain will show up in the next couple of days. Fun weekend coming up! I haven't had taste changes yet - if it takes 2 weeks that explains it - but have no appetite. I got two IV anti-emetics, one of which is very expensive, but only Phenergan to take home. I don't like neuroleptics for nausea, personally. I've seen enough acute dystonic & other reactions with them to like them for routine use.

I think my team, and it sounds like your team, could do better in explaining time of onset of expected/common side effects. I have the impression my onco doesn't want to 'put ideas in my head' and have me anticipate the worst. I disagree. I think that, if people know what may commonly happen, they're much less upset and anxious when it happens, and they get needed care promptly instead of trying to tough it out and ending up in hospital. And if bad things don't happen it's a bonus!

[footfootfoot]

Is Scopolamine effective against nausea?

I'm sorry to even hear about the possibility of nausea for you.

[orthodoc]

Scopolamine is helpful in people who get significant motion sickness/sea sickness. I don't get either, so it's not particularly helpful for me. Plus it gives you dry mouth, blurry vision - anticholinergic effects, as that's the way it works.

Thanks ... hopefully it won't be a big problem. I'm told that the way I react to this first treatment over the next three weeks (until the next one) will be my pattern for the rest. So I'm waiting and hoping for the best.