Psalms138's Journey with Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma

I went in to have lymph-nodes removed. It was a scheduled surgery, but a couple of days before the surgery, the pain intensified and they had to do emergency surgery to remove lymph-nodes in my abdomen as well as one of my ovaries. The lymph-nodes they had to remove, were deep in my pelvic area near my spine. It was suppose to be a simple surgery done with minimal cutting... Due to the emergency situation, they had to make a vertical incision from my sternum to my belly button... It was the worst surgery I have ever had as far as recovery.... Very painful... But I did recover... I have a pretty nasty scar on my stomach, but that is just cosmetics... At least I am healthy now...

Having a port-a-cath, makes chemotherapy easy to do, but the side effect vary... Unfortunately, I had serious complications with digestion... CONSTIPATION.... I couldn't eat... I developed thrush so bad, my ears hurt, mouth hurt, throat hurt. I tried to drink plenty of fluids... Even drank ensure and pedialite even though was only 32 years old... I lost 50lbs. It killed my immune system to the point of even being hospitalized and quarantined in my hospital room due to risk of infection. I couldn't go to Wal-Mart, grocery shopping, church... (and I'm a pastor's wife) Even when I did go to church, they had to rope off a pre-sterilized area just for me to sit. I had to wear a mask anytime I left the house to minimize my germ intake.... It very much disrupted my daily life....

Because the type and intensity of chemotherapy I had to take, I also had to come in the day after and get a shot to boost my immune system... The chemo destroyed my white blood cells, leaving me vulnerable to serious complications from common infections. I didn't find this particularly easy because the day after the chemo I was usually wiped out, exhausted, and really just wanting to sleep, not go to the hospital for another shot... But even that was bearable... What really stinks was the effects from the shot... It caused me to hurt, ache, have chills... like I had the flu... Sleeping helped...

Being a Pastor's wife and a leader in a Recovery program, I had a real problem with taking narcotic pain medicine... I know it boils down to my stubbornness... but it really effected me emotionally... I hated the thought of having to take this medicine for pain on an on going basis... for a day or two after a surgery, sure... but because the cancer caused me great pain all of the time, I fought the doctors on what I would take... We finally agreed on Tramadol... However, once I started chemo, the pain from the immune booster shot put me over the edge and I had to take oxy for a while... I was devastated... It made me sleep more than I wanted... Understand that when I took Lortab after a surgery, it made me hallucinate because I wasn't used to taking strong narcotic... The smallest dose of oxy put me out for several hours and I always woke up with horrible headaches and felt groggy and just not myself...

The nausea meds were the only thing keeping me sane... It was pretty immediate as far as the diagnosis and starting chemotherapy, so my insurance took a while to sort out the details of why I needed major meds so quickly... In all of the confusion, the pharmacy gave me the wrong nausea meds at first.... So the first 2 rounds of chemo were horrible... I puked so much.... The hospital kept me well medicated until I got home and didn't have the right meds... Once they figured it all out, the nausea was at a minimum... Praise God for nausea medicine!!!