Unexpectedly Great Day
Based on the pain I've been having in that node under my arm and the spread of the pain to my arm, chest and shoulder, I was not expecting any good news when I saw the doc and was scheduled for chemo today. However, last night I really got to wondering if the PICC line that I've had in my left arm all these months (tube threads up into shoulder and down into a main artery) hasn't been exacerbating the nodes in that area. Last night I was so uncomfortable, that by midnight, when neither tylenol or darvocet had done a thing for the pain, I was tempted to rip the thing out of my arm. I didn't give in to that urge, but talked to the doc about it today.
So here's the good news. He agreed with me that it would be good to take out the PICC line (after my chemo) and give that area a rest. They usually don't leave a PICC line in that long, but mine had been working so unusually well that we didn't want to mess with success back when my counts were so low. Now that's not a problem.
The second question I had for him was, given the bad time I had with the last round of chemo/prednisone, could we change to a lower dose of prednisone? Not only did he agree to dropping from 80 mg to 60 this time, but he proposed a "maintenance" plan starting after this round that gets rid of the prednisone altogether! I was sooooo excited to hear that. And he's ready to drop the vincristine which gives me the peripheral neuropathy (numb/tingly fingers and toes) too. My maintenance will be only cytoxin and rituxan once every 4 weeks (instead of every 3 weeks) and since my blood counts have been so stellar, I only have to get my counts done every 3 weeks instead of weekly.
Wow. Now I am PICC-less. I can wash my arm!!! I don't have to take a shower with a plastic bag on!!! I feel like I'm reclaiming my body in many ways. There's no way you can feel healthy (sexy???) with a tube hanging out of your arm. Or at least I couldn't seem to get around it.
Now I'm ready to schedule a vacation to Tucson (and not go alone). And until then and after that, maybe I can have a somewhat normal (or however close to that I've ever been) life for a change. I'm happy. I'm having fun, impending prednisone effects notwithstanding.
Today's counts:
WBC 4.3
HgB 12.3
Platelets 292 (another new record)
Turn on the music, roll up the rugs, blast the stereo, put on my dancing shoes (well, socks really) I'm ready to par-tay!
