7/2 - Che-mo, No-mo': Final Round

Kristine began her sixth and final round of chemo today. She always has a lot of anxiety going into any treatment cycle and this one, being the last, was no different. In fact, her anxiety was probably heightened this round knowing that all likely next steps are fairly uncertain and a bit scary.

The cancer center was booked solid today. Last Thursday and Friday there was a power outage in the building and surrounding area causing the center to temporarily close down for two days. This, of course, meant rescheduled patients and, in turn, early Monday morning delays. Rescheduled appointments coupled with a short holiday week is a recipe for mayhem. We didn't see the doctor until almost 11am. This put Kristine on track for a late night. Since her treatment wouldn't start until almost 1pm we knew we were going to be up until around 2am. To add to an already frustrating morning, Linda (the only oncology nurse that has had any success accessing Kristine's ports) was on vacation for the week. Kristine became instantly upset at the thought of port troubles. Fortunately, Margie (another oncology nurse) was able to access one of the two ports, enough to get us through one last week.

Kristine is doing pretty well though now that the cycle has begun. There is one new symptom though that she discussed today with Dr. Staddon. Kristine has been experiencing rapid but regular heartbeats (a type of arrhythmia) when she engages in even minor physical activities, the occurrences of which have been increasing. Dr. Staddon thought this was cause for concern and referred us to a cardiologist for closer inspection. Kristine has an appointment next Wednesday to get hooked up to a Holter Monitor (a device worn with electrodes to track the variation in heart activity) for 24 hours. Although this is very concerning, it is likely related to the mass in Kristine's atrium, further underscoring the need for surgical extraction of the tumor.