Hitting the Limits

It seems my day was not to be complete without some excitement.  We started my Carboplatin today, and I reached the limit of how much of it I can have.  I was on the phone with Josh and I started feeling itchy in my throat and eyes and everywhere.  I said goodbye to him and called for Carol, my nurse.  She said I was having the allergic reaction that she always tells me to watch for, because the more you get of Carbo, the more chance you can react.  I immediately had 3 nurses around me, one give me oxygen, one giving me a shot in my iv to counteract the reaction and some benadryl, and one giving my saline.  I started getting a rash on my arms and my ears and face turned red.  It took two doses of the drugs before I started really improving.  It was just crazy!   It is very difficult to be so itchy when you are surrounded by other people when all you want to do is stand up and scratch all over, but it finally started subsiding and eventually went completely away after we left the cancer center.  

Everyone next to me kept asking if I was okay.  I guess I provided them with some good entertainment!  A sweet older African American friend named Willie, was leaving at the same time I was and announced that she and I were going to go hit the bar, get some drinks, and go dancing.  Then she proceeded to do a little dance right there for everyone.  Ha, ha!  Good times.  Willie is moving out of state soon, and I am going to miss her.  I wonder how old she really is.  I am guessing she would be old enough to be my grandma.

My doctor will put me on another platinum chemo, probably Cisplatin, for the continuation of my treatment.  As many of my other mets friends will tell you, having metastatic BC is like running a marathon, not a sprint.  That is why we will stay on a drug (keep running) as long as it is working and we tolerate it--especially if we are gaining ground.  If we fall and scrape our knee, we get up and keep going.  Today's good news gave me that boost I needed to keep running.