Health updates!

WELL, the second round of chemo didn't exactly go as smoothly as the first. But i'm okay!! (i wonder how many of you will stop reading now? LOL)

Problem number one: my mom. Okay i love her but she makes me a nervous wreck sometimes...especially in stressful situations. i have panic attacks...and she thinks that if she talks, non freakin stop, she will 'distract me' and i'll calm down. Um..NO. It has the opposite effect, and i've told her that about a million times, all to no avail. Sooo i'm having a panic attack on the way to the chemo center thingy, and mom decides now is a good time to go on and on and on and on about her friend who i don't even KNOW and all of this friend's personal problems. By the time we get there (20 minutes later) i'm a mess! My blood pressure is normally REALLY low. Last time i checked in, it was 100/58, and my pulse was 62. The nurse takes my BP this time and it's super high. Don't remember the numbers...130something over something high, and my pulse was 98. Nurse freaks out, and i tell her i had a panic attack, calm down.

Then she starts the IV and it goes wrong. WAY wrong. She can tell the minute she starts the needle and says 'oh that did NOT feel right. I'll start you on saline and if it hurts let me know and we'll switch to the other arm.' Well i have a ginormous tolerance for pain, so i'm all 'psh! yeah right whatevs. i can take it.' It starts to hurt right away, and is bruising instantly, but i ignore it, cos i think i'm badass like that. Then it starts to hurt REALLY bad and i take a peek...and the saline is just pumping into my ARM because the vein is blown. The whole forearm is bruising and swollen from the saline filling up in there...so i give in and call the nurse back over to start a new line. The second line went into my other arm just fine.

My blood pressure was even higher when they checked it before i left. But my doctor said that's to be expected with the one med they gave me. He said just drink lots of fluids for two days, no big deal.

The actual experience of getting the chemo was worse than last time, but so far the side effects are BETTER than last time?! NO nausea so far, two days later!! I actually felt well enough, for the first time in over two weeks, to go out to dinner last night!! The back ache isn't as bad this time either. And i don't have 'chemo brain!' i'm no more scatter brained than i normally am!! Oh AND i am able to taste white sugar!! Last time, for a week and a half, i couldn't taste white sugar?? Brown sugar, high fructose corn syrup, the sweetness in fruit and such...yes. White sugar? Nope! Could not taste it at all? (VERY weird, right??) But this time i can taste sugar! Yay! My sweet tea tastes as sweet as always!!

Thanks again for all the well wishes, prayers, good vibes, jokes and all. You guys...yeah. You know what i'm gonna say, right? You guys ROCK!!