Yesterday was my last chemo treatment. The strange thing about yesterday was that with everything starting to feel so regular and predictable from round to round, yesterday held some surprises.

My appointment was for 11am, and we ended up arriving a little after 10:30. Even a few days after winter storm Nemo, traffic going into Boston was still somewhat unpredictable. Also because of the storm, the office was really crowded and busy. Thankfully, we got taken pretty quickly, and went back to the treatment area.

As I wrote the other day, one of the side effects that hasn’t really been a problem for me, but that I’ve been warned about multiple times and they ask about every time I see a doctor or nurse, is general peripheral neuropathy. It’s a tingling (usually) in the hands and feet that can get bad enough to interfere with your day-to-day activities (being unsteady on your feet, having trouble with fine motor skills like buttoning buttons, etc.).

Until about two weeks ago, this was a symptom that I was lucky enough not to be experiencing. Then, that changed and I was feeling it in my fingers and feet all the time. It wasn’t nearly bad enough to be interfering with anything, but it was just a low level, always there sensation. It’s hard to describe, and really strange to feel. It bothered me more in my feet – they always felt like they were cold and tingling because of it.

The intensity of what I was feeling didn’t raise any red flags with my oncologist or nurse in terms of medication dosage, especially since it was my last treatment. Plus, we’d already reduced the dosage slightly when my platelets got low. So, after my blood counts were checked and looked good, I got hooked up and we moved forward with my last day.

Initially, everything was going okay and feeling normal. I even made some crack to my nurse that things felt kind of anti-climactic. I got my pre-meds infused and then they hung the main chemo drugs: the Leucovorin and Oxalyplatin. I was eating my lunch and just sitting in the chair. A few minutes went by, and I just started to feel like something was wrong. My hands were tingling a lot and feeling almost painful, and my stomach was roiling a bit. I had to go to the bathroom, so I decided to do that first, and then if I was still feeling the same in another 5 minutes, I’d grab my nurse.

While I was in the bathroom, I was feeling hot, and after a few minutes, I had to throw up. Thankfully I managed to use a trash can and not make a huge mess. When I got up to wash my hands, my palms were bright red, and when I looked in the mirror, my face and neck were red and splotchy.

My first reaction was that something just wasn’t right. I knew that they’d cross-checked the labels on all of my meds against my name, birthdate, and patient number, but I was wondering if it was possible that a bag had been mis-labeled in the lab before the meds got sent up. I just felt totally “wrong”, and given how predictable each treatment day is, that had me very concerned. I wasn’t having trouble breathing or any chest pains, so I wasn’t scared, exactly, but I knew something wasn’t right.

On my way back to my chair, I stopped at the nurses’ desk. My nurse was with another patient, but one of the other ones asked me what I needed. I started to tell them that I’d thrown up in the bathroom trash and they might want to have someone change the bag, and also request that my nurse come over soon, but before I could get the whole sentence out, two nurses looked up at me, asked me if I was feeling okay, and started to escort me back to my seat. They stopped the infusion pumps, called my nurse over, and paged my oncologist.

One of the things I was then reminded about was that some people can have an allergic type reaction to Oxalyplatin, and that was presumably what was happening here. They immediately gave me some benadryl via IV and a small additional dose of dexamethasone (a steroid).

By that time, my oncologist arrived and confirmed that this looked like an allergic reaction, and that they wouldn’t be giving me any more of the Oxalyplatin. She said that it was more typical to see people have these reactions around treatment five or six, but that it wasn’t unusual to see it later on… side effects can be cumulative, etc. etc.

At this point, the whole situation just felt weird. There were two nurses and my oncologist who were just standing around and looking at me. I had a blood pressure cuff on my arm and they took my pressure every 15 minutes or so. As time went by, I started to feel better and look better. They waited about 45 minutes total, and then they continued my infusion (just the Leucovorin).

I will say, the scary part wasn’t so much me feeling “off” or seeing my red face in the mirror. It was the swarm of nurses and doctors once they saw me. It was comforting that everyone reacted so quickly, but it’s overwhelming when that many people swarm around you talking and doing things so quickly. I know that my wife was freaked out, but she kept it together.

The other thing is that IV benadryl works FAST. I immediately felt a little lightheaded and very tired. Even as the doctor and nurses were standing around watching me, I had to close my eyes. Once they re-started the infusion, I pretty much fell asleep for the next couple of hours.

By the time I woke up, I felt pretty normal, looked normal (from what everyone told me) and have since then. My nurse called me this afternoon to check in and I was able to tell her that I hadn’t had any other allergy-type symptoms and that I felt normal all day.

So, a little bit of excitement for my last treatment, but ultimately everything worked out fine. I guess that’s what I get for thinking that my last day was going to be anticlimactic…

Tomorrow is my last chemo treatment: twelve out of twelve. It’s strange to think that I started this back in September, and that time has gone by as quickly as it has.

I’m definitely looking forward to being done. I’ve got one more crappy weekend to get through, and then hopefully it’s all improvements from here: side effects fading and feeling normal again. I figure that it’ll take about 4-6 weeks for that to happen, but the worst part will be over after this weekend.

In the past couple of weeks, I have begun to feel the general peripheral neuropathy that the doctors and nurses warned me about: tingling in my hands (fingers, mostly) and feet, even when I’m not cold. It’s odd to say the least. It’s not so bad that it’s getting in the way of my daily functioning: I can zip zippers, button buttons, and type without a problem; I’m not tripping because my feet are that numb. It’s just a little uncomfortable. I’m told that this will fade once my treatment’s over, but it’s one of the things that they ask about every time I go in, and watch carefully.

I figured that I was done experiencing anything “new” related to my treatments, but apparently things continue to develop even into the last couple of weeks… fun.

Anyway… just one more to go. Victory.

I had my second-to-last chemo treatment this past Wednesday. I’ve pretty much had all of the energy sapped out of me since then, so this is the first opportunity I’ve had to write down my thoughts on the day.

I had the earliest appointment yet at the hospital: an 8am appointment with the oncologist followed by a 9am infusion appointment. That meant I needed to be at the hospital at 7:30 so that they could do a blood draw first. We left ourselves plenty of time to get to the hospital, especially considering the early hour, but I forgot to factor in the fact that it was raining, which apparently meant that I should have left my house around 2am. Driving in and around Boston is all of the joy and wonder that you’ve heard it is, trust me.

I ended up arriving around 8:15. Once again, here’s a tip… if you’re a few minutes late, don’t panic. You’re the one with cancer, and they’re not going to turn you away. My doctor was running a little behind, anyway, so it all worked out.

My conversation with my oncologist was fairly brief. Given that this was the last time I’d be seeing her during treatment, we mostly talked about logistics once my chemo is done: I’ll go in about 4 weeks after my last treatment for a check-in appointment; then I’ll go in about six weeks after that. Following those, I’ll start going in once every 10-12 weeks for blood work, have a CAT scan once a year, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that nothing pops up.

I’ll also need a colonoscopy sometime around June or July. They like to do one approximately one year from when I was first diagnosed. After that, I’ll need to get one every 2-3 years, depending on the gastroenterologist’s recommendation.

My port will stay in for 2-3 months. Basically, it’s a lot easier to take out than to put in, so they like to make sure I’ve gone through my first couple of post-treatment visits before I get it taken out.

After waiting an extra week for my 10th treatment, my oncologist had also reduced the dosage on my chemo drugs that week. It meant that the intensity of my side effects was a little more reduced during my last round, and the meds will stay at that lower dosage for my last two treatments. Hopefully that means that things will continue to be a little easier as I finish things out.

That said, the last few days definitely kicked my ass – especially fatigue-wise. After my treatment on Wednesday, I crashed early in the evening and slept through the night. On Thursday, I fell asleep around 8:30pm and didn’t wake up until 8am the next morning. I slept late on both Saturday and Sunday; and I’m just now (on Sunday evening) feeling like I have a little bit of energy.

Thankfully, I don’t care at all about the Superbowl, so I don’t have to waste any energy cheering.

One more to go. Still not fun while it’s happening, but I can definitely get through one more.