Napi Horsemanship

After 15 days I was released back into the wild. Almost an entire week at home before going back to the hospital for my second cycle of chemotherapy. I got to meet my lymphoma doctor through Fred Hutch and we discussed my entire shit show. Surprisingly he came in and started off with changing my cancer diagnosis. I had thoughts of fear and hopefulness as he explained why the change of course. To have Burkitt’s there is usually a chromosome change that just wasn’t apparent in mine. My cancer got “downgraded” from Burkitt’s Lymphoma to High Grade B Cell Lymphoma. Pretty much, my cancer is an aggressive Non Hodgkin Lymphoma. The most positive aspect of the shift was my chemotherapy regiment. With the Burkitt’s I was going to be completing Hyper CVAD but with the new diagnosis he decided we would go the EPOCH route. It’s a chemotherapy that is going to not be so rough on my body.

Ironically after two natural child births to avoid a needle in my spine, I ended up having to get a lumbar puncture/spinal tap done. I would be happy to never have one done ever again. My supporting partner took me in the day before my admittance, for my second cycle of chemo, to get the lumbar puncture done. I had a great team that day for the procedure. I was given anxiety relief before for my nerves. They put music on for me and I assumed the position of laying on my side with my knees up under my chin. My partner sat right by head while the nurse practitioner set up my lumbar kit. My nerves did get the best of me. I wished they could drug you up a little more for this event. “The Pinch” was more than I anticipated and I tried to flinch away from it. I ended up leaning in to the needle, and this was just the numbing process. There was one part that made a tribal birth sound come out of my body. I’m thankful that my partners hand was there because that ended up being one of my biggest reliefs. I want to be honest about this because I want someone to have more preparation than I had for what to expect. The good news is once the numbing is done its golden! I relaxed significantly once I realized the discomfort was over with. They collected a sample of my spinal fluid. Of course I asked to see it because how often do you get to see your spinal fluid? only thing that made my lumbar puncture unique is while they went in for the sample they were depositing chemo as well. There had been some lesions or thickening of the membrane on my brain and spine. The results of my lumbar was that there were no B cells present. I am meeting with a neurologist to follow this up to air on the side of caution. I have a good doctor.

I went in Saturday to get my second cycle of chemotherapy. But this time it wasn’t Hyper CVAD but EPOCH. The slang term : The Red Devil. Because it’s straight up red. Other than being away from my family my cycle went extremely well. I didn’t have much issues with nausea. The only thing I noticed was my heart rate dropped. You can tell this stuff is hard on your heart to pump. They also have a max of how much you can have in your lifetime for that exact reason as well. The worse part ended up being the two days after chemo. I had pretty achey pain that went deep tissue to skin surface. I was prescribed Claritin to use next time after my cycle.

My cycle 3 will be May 11th so until then you can expect some more posts about cancer shit and life. I did shave my head and plan a whole post alone to go over that. Thanks for reading!