Not. 

As you guys read in the last post, minor side effects…. Yeah, that all changed yesterday morning when Megan woke up with a rash from head to toe. Slightly itchy, tender, but nothing totally unmanageable. Megan had started messaging her doc the night before about scalp sensitivity and then continued the convo about the rash in the morning. As the day went on, the rash and the way Megan was feeling was getting worse, so an appointment with Dr. Finn was scheduled for that afternoon. 

Fast forward to the appointment, Megan is curled up on the doctor’s table under her pineapple blanket when Dr.Finn comes in. After saying “I hear you have a rash”, his eyes get huge when Megan pulls off the blanket to reveal the urgency of the situation. Consensus was an allergic reaction to Nexavar. Not a side effect, but instead an allergy to something in the pill. Prescription was a scalp solution for the skin sensitivity and itching, a steroid cream for the rest of the body, and then Benadryl to help clear it up. Yeah, none of that worked. 

We ran to CVS to get her meds and Aveeno oatmeal bath stuff. Megan got thrown in the bath where relief only lasted for 5min, then she was slathered in all of the meds we got earlier. Thank goodness, the utter lack of sleep from the night before and the momentum of the day kind of took it out of her so Megan konked out around 8pm thankfully to two 100mg Benadryl pills. 

Throughout the night, she was given more Benadryl, Tylenol and solution/cream reapplication. None of it was helping. At around 4am, Megan wandered down to the couch to try to sleep or entertain herself with the Tv. When I (D) woke up at 10am (I was catching up on sleep too), I wandered downstairs to find my poor girl in worse condition than before. Her rash went red to dark red/purple, none of it seemed to have gotten smaller, and her tongue had swollen up. “He said I should go to the ER if I am having a hard time breathing”. Screw that, we were going now. 

So here we are at the ER. Megan is in her bunny socks, has been stabbed 5 times and now we are just waiting for them to take us back into a room. Stand by for an update…

It’s. Been. Crazy!

Between starting the meds and working overnights and missing the start date of our honeymoon (we’re missing a month in Greece- but we’ll make it up sometime), it’s been a very trying week. 

I have to take 1 pill, twice a day. The tricky part is that it has to be on an empty stomach, so I have to take it two hours after eating and an hour before I eat. And as a CONSTANT EATER it’s been strange to have to make a 3 hour window in the front end of my day to make that happen. It started out all good!! Not until day 4 did I get a couple of nose bleeds and experience waves of nausea. On day 5 I (foolishly) cleaned the house with no gloves on- man, they weren’t kidding about skin sensitivity- my fingertips were tender for more than a day. I won’t be forgetting to put gloves on again! I think it was that day that I noticed my tongue being sensitive, sometimes it feels like I chugged something hot, my mouth tastes strange and my tongue feels fuzzy. It was also probably day 4 or 5 that I noticed my scalp hurting, I remember taking my ponytail out and rubbing my head at work, thinking I must have just had my hair up too tight. The sensitivity has only gotten worse since then, and I spent most of my night tonight with frozen peas against my head to help with the stingy, burning sensation. It’s also, most unfortunately, happening in my pubic area as well (hmm…overshare?? Sorry.). However, my hair might not actually be falling out…which is good news for obvious reasons, but at the same time bad news because I’ve learned that once your hair is gone your follicles no longer hurt, so I kind of wish for it to go just for the relief. Dr. Finn is ordering some cream for me that supposed to help with this symptom so we’ll see how that goes. I’m also pretty sure I’m going to chop my hair short so it’ll be easier to keep clean and apply creams and whatnot. My skin has also taken to breaking out in minor but pretty uncomfortable rashes; the first night I just had it on my back side but today it covered my whole torso, arms and thighs. Luckily some Aveeno lotion with camomile helps with this a bunch so Danielle has been helping slather it on me. There’s also something ✨magical✨ about the hours of 3-5am; even if I’m asleep my body wakes me up with some unpleasantry. Today it’s the rashes, hense the middle of the night blog post! (Come on, aveeno!! Do your thing!!)

Dr. Finn did say that I’d feel about 70-80% good on this stuff…which I guess is still true. My appetite has been a little low but my energy levels still feel high. And WOW, can I just take a second to say that all the love I get from friends and family is CRAZY AWESOME and really does help me remember to keep up the positivity?! Seriously. Thanks everyone. 

Time to switch to reading my book, hopefully I’ll get more sleep soon….