MESNA (oops I mean mesna)

Christian cannot hear this word without it stimulating his GAG reflex!  One of the chemotherapy drugs that Christian has on days 2-5 of chemo is called Ifosfamide or I-fex.  This drug somehow neutralizes the toxicity of the I-fex and protects the bladder. It is given both before a dose of I-fex and 8 hours after.  The pre-dose is administered through the IV line at the cancer center it only takes 20 min. or so.  However, the post-dose is given to you in a little white lunch sack and when you open it, you see - the syringe from hell!!!  Below is a picture of the label.

I love that this oral medication has the words TOXIC and BIOHAZARD on it.  You would think that instead of waking up in the middle of the night to orally ingest it,  you would should handle it with a team of these guys!

Toxic is as Toxic tastes - Christian HATES this stuff - it is probably the worst part of chemotherapy; taking this stuff.  He has tried mixing it with orange juice, he's tried chasing it down with soda, he tried putting toothpaste in his mouth - which only made him hate brushing his teeth!  He's tried and tried and nothing seemed to make it easier.  However, someone at the cancer center mentioned "Atomic Fireballs"!!!!  His lovely sister Chantelle found some of these beauties along with another trick or two and it has become bearable.  The hope is that someone out there who has to go through TIP Salvage Chemotherapy will find this blog and learn how to take it night after night without gagging.!

Step 1.  Suck on Atomic Fireball for 10+ min.

Step 2.  Squirt Chloraseptic as far back in the throat as possible and on the tongue - this has a lovely numbing agent to it.

Step 3.  Squirt down the syringe of Mesna - and quickly, before you can taste it: swallow

Step 4.  Chase it down with some Izzie soda.

PHEW - done for tonight.  Now, go back to bed and try and get all of the above tastes out of your mouth so that you can sleep!  

The Pukes and the Poos of Post Chemo

Such a delightful title, eh?  Post chemo is always very, very, very, very, hard at our house and these few days were no exception.  Christian gets a miracle anti-nausea drug called "Emend" on day 1 of the beginning of every round but because of his intense nausea and vomiting which caused the hospitalization after Round 2, Dr. Bodkin ordered him to receive Emend both on the day of his Thanksgiving Day hospital visit as well as the next day at the Ambulatory Infusion Center.  All told, he received 3 infusions of this drug and we, eh hem, thought we would sail through most of the nasty side effects.
On Saturday, he began a pro-prophylactic course of anti-biotics called Levoquin.  He was prescribed this after his hospitalization for the Neutropenic Fever after Round 1.  The Dr. thought that it best to head off any possible infection with a course of antibiotic though there was no infection.  So, we filled the prescription and set off to endure the tough week ahead.  Vomiting began on Sunday, and Monday began some gnarly diarrhea.  Tuesday, his mom came over to visit and begged us to go to the hospital. But. Christian felt much more in control of his nausea and was trying so hard to eat 1/2 cup applesauce, or some spoon fulls of jello here and there.  Even though he was on the bathroom floor after having diarrhea to weak to make it back to the bed - we still thought we were fighting normal post chemo pukes and poos.  We naively thought that we were within normal reactions to the treatment.  We told his mom that Wednesday was doomsday - it was day 5 out of chemo and either we turned a corner and got this thing controlled at home, or we went into the hospital.
Wednesday was not any better - so after a call to the cancer center, Christian went in for a bag of IV fluids to help to hydrate him and another intervenous anti-nausea drug. We arrived at the cancer center a bit late 3:30 pm and they are only open until 5:00 pm so they couldn't give him a ton of liquids but assured him that he could come back on Thursday and Friday and Saturday AND Sunday - until he felt re-hydrated and less nauseated.
I've got to say something about this diarrhea - it was light in color and mucousy and it STUNK - you don't even know.  The smell floated out of our room and into the living room - it was nasty smelling - I mean diarrhea often is but this was INCREDIBLE - like the smell of meat that's been in the fridge way too long and you open the Ziploc bag to see if juuuuuust maybe you can get away with it.  But the moment you open the bag, your gag reflex kicks in and you slam shut the bag and toss is immediately in the trash!!! That was the smell!
Wednesday evening, we came back to the house and put Christian into bed, he threw up 4 more times and by 10:00 pm his dad had convinced us to go to the hospital.  His dad agreed to sleep there with the kids at the house - what's more fun than waking up to Grandpa in the house????- so that we could get Christian admitted.
To be continued in the next post . . .
Take away -1.  Listen to your in-laws  2.  Take diarrhea seriously.  Seriously folks, take it seriously!