sky's Cancer Blog

September 4, 2007

Follow Up with Onocologist/Wonderful Aredia

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I’m tired but I’m not sleepy, thanks to the Decadron (I think) which has an irritating side effect on my body, that of insomnia.

I went in to see my oncologist today. She’s very happy with my progress. Lab work came back fine, kidney results were good, and there were no severe adverse affects from the Xeloda…no mouth sores, burning hands or feet. I have good days and bad days still, discoloration on my hands and feet, tenderness on the pads of my toes and fingers, dehydration but that’s about it…so on we go.

I was given Aredia today along with the four pre-meds I have to take to counter the powerful side effects. I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but the first time I was given a bone drug (it wasn’t Aredia but I can’t recall the name), it literally nearly killed me.

This occurred right after I was released from the hospital last December, after my back surgery.

My first night home was a nightmare: I had severe chills, a fever that reached up to 103, and I kept slipping in and out of consciousness. My best friend and sisters rushed me to the doctor’s office.

I was given a powerful antibiotic to help counter the symptoms with a warning to take me to the ER if I didn’t show signs of improvement within the next 2-3 hours. Well, I started feeling better after taking the antibiotic so we dodged a major bullet. I slowly recovered but it took me over a week to feel normal again.

Anyway, since then, I’ve been taking Aredia and its co-horts on a monthly basis, and now on a 3-week basis.

I have to deal with insomnia during the first 24 hours (no, not even Ambien works for me at this point), and then after that I crash big time with chills, night sweats, loss of appetite.

I’ve been able to counteract most of the symptoms through daily 30-minute exercise. I no longer suffer from night sweats and loss of appetite. However, I do still have to deal with insomnia and chills on some nights. I also think the exercise has helped stem some of the side effects of the Xeloda, but that’s just my opinion.

One more thing to mention: My doctor wants to schedule a bone scan three weeks hence. I’m anxious to find out how the Xeloda is impacting the lesions.

I’m ready for some really good news…

Posted on September 4, 2007 at 10:34:23 PM by Grace ( Follow Up with Onocologist/Wonderful Aredia, 1 comment)

So glad you had some good results back. Hope the bone scan goes well. We will be thinking of you Grace.

Posted on September 5, 2007 at 8:57:38 AM by jill