Chemo #4, session 1 and my leg

I have been on at least 3 different chemo regimens in the last year. Today, I started a new one: Doxil, or Adriamycin. Nurse Sam gave me a two page list of side effects and what to do to minimize them. I am to avoid citrus, tomatoes, spicy food, hot beverages, hard or crunchy foods, and alcohol the day before chemo up to 5 days after chemo, which is a week. I am also encouraged to be super gentle to my skin. The information sheet recommended not rubbing the skin hard and avoiding sweeping, mopping, lawn mowing, washing dishes, typing, and other activities that involve heat or repetitive friction. Maybe because Adriamycin is also used to treat women with breast cancer, the list seemed oriented toward housework. Well, good thing my cleaning service is coming next week, unless I am back in the hospital.

Before I got chemo, I mentioned to Nurse Sam that over the weekend, I coughed up a blood clot bigger than a raisin and smaller than a cherry. (When I mentioned it to my mother, I said "bigger than a raisin and smaller than a cantaloupe" which wasn't as helpful.) Sam said that I had to see Dr. Rubin before treatment. I finished my novel while waiting for her. Dr. Rubin asked a lot of questions and thoroughly checked my lungs with her stethoscope. She said that the tumor in my lungs might be pressing against a blood vessel causing my lung to bleed. She also said that I needed to call right away if it happens again. I had been anxious when it happened, but I didn't think it was that much of an emergency because it was older clotted blood. Dr. Rubin said that a lung specialist might need to cauterize the tissue if it happens again. She also said that I could get chemo. Yay!

As I finished up chemo, Jeff the prosthetist texted me to say that he was on his way to Philly. I paid, put on my coat, and hailed a cab home. I had just enough time to eat a late lunch before Jeff arrived bearing my awesome leg. He glued the pins in place on both my liners and suggested that I practice putting on the leg and standing for a few minutes at a time so that I will be used to it before going back to Magee. After my nap, I put the leg on and tried standing and shifting my weight between my my feet to get my little leg as far into the socket as it could go. I got the pin to lock in place, which means that my leg was all the way down in the socket. Yay!

It amuses me to look down and see one detachable robot leg and one attached human leg.



I am not supposed to walk on it alone, but I feel like I might take a few steps. I am a little concerned that standing, donning the leg and walking will involve exactly the sort of repetitive friction that the chemo warned me about. I will just have to be extra mindful about irritation on my leg. Walking is awesome, but skin integrity is necessary. I still have nightmares occasionally about my skin dissolving, a completely painful and disgusting process.