I asked for an Ambian, which is essentially routine for the patients here, so I could get decent sleep with the fluids they started, blood draw, vitals, and EKG they did overnight. They started Mesna at 8:00 to prevent hemorrhagic cystitis for the first premed, and it will run continually until the Cytoxan is out of my system. They started Ativan, Zofran, and Decadron, at 9:30. Ativan for anti-anxiety, Zofran for nausea, and Decadron for another antiemetic which augments the effect of Zofran to essentially make it stronger.
I started to feel a bit loopy from the Ativan a few minutes after, so they had me stay in the bed until we saw how I'd handle it. It didn't get any worse so they let me get up on my own. Dr. Burt signed off on the EKG and they hung Cytoxan a little after 10:00, which ran for 2 hours. It went fine and the 2 hours flew by. Still not feeling any side effects from it. A little bit later, they gave me Lasix to help flush everything out. I had to pee a lot for the next 3 hours or so, then it started to wear off a bit. My heart rate has been elevated so they lowered the next dose a bit.
They gave me Hibiclens to use daily while showering. It's very good at preventing infection even after you wash it off. The isolation floor is kept very dry, and a chemo side effect can be dry skin, so they gave me some different lotions to use. More Cytoxin tomorrow with the same premeds. I'll get Campath, another chemo, tomorrow, as well, with Benadryl and Tylenol for premeds for that.
I'm assuming you have to keep flushing fluids and whatnot out because the kidneys and liver pick up the toxins? And obviously they cant say in your body. Or is it more of a practical reason to keep any chances of sepsis or nausea down?
ReplyDeleteYou got it. Letting the drugs sit in your system longer increases the risk of something unnecessarily going wrong. Not positive to the extent, but I'd imagine not letting the drugs linger helps a bit with the other side effects.
ReplyDelete