Friday, April 13, 2007

It's the 'roids, man!

Life on chemo has been described as a roller coaster at best. Between "main lining" highly toxic chemicals, coping with dangerously low white blood cell counts and feeling the artificial boost of steroids, I haven't been certain if my body's been up, down or round the bend over these last three weeks.

Since oral steroids were part of the protocol on days 11 through 14, I wasn't even aware that my white blood cell count had dipped to alarmingly low levels during that time frame. I was flying high on one hour of sleep in a 24-hour period.

Dr. Forman and I were relieved to learn yesterday that the inoculation I received on Monday boosted my white cell count to above normal levels. Ironically, just when my white count is soaring, I'm feeling the most tired. I'm maintaining a fairly active life (yesterday was Pilates, a bowling party for the children of Hillsides and a 3-hour appointment at CofH), but "I feel the need, the need for speed" has been replaced with "I feel the need, the need for zzzzz's."

When I asked Dr. Forman why I feel tired now and felt so good when my levels were low, he got a glint in his eye and said, "It's the 'roids."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Beautiful Susan, Wow! I knew that 'roids could mask infection but i did not know that they can make you feel "up"! Interesting. You take those ZZZZZ's, Dear One, because sleep is very healing. Your Y looks like a very happening place! Is that where you do your Pilates? Maybe I'll check out a Y in Anaheim. See if they have a pool to do my pool walking in. My Mom sends her love...so do i.

Susan C said...

In case anyone's interested the steroid is the "D" in my Hyper CVAD protocol. It stands for Dexamethasone and is administered through the PICC line on days 1-4 and orally on days 11-14.

skye said...

I was happy to see your usual spirited, spunky self when I walked into the coffee gallery on friday
xo
skye