Yesterday I had my Chemo Round 2 Day 1 treatment. It started out a rough and then it got better. I was dozing off in a very comfortable Lazyboy chair at the chemo lab. All of a sudden I had an 'I can't breathe' moment. It only lasted a few seconds. The nurses came running in to give me steroids to open up my airway. I don't think I had ever been that scared in my life. I cried for 10 minutes. I think I scared the other patients at the Chemo lab. For some reason, each time I dozed off after that, I had trouble breathing. So I straightened up the lazy boy, used a sheet they gave me to force my neck and head forward, so my head didn't flop back. And then I dozed off sideways with my elbow on the armrest. That seemed to do the trick and I was able to go through the rest of the 4 hour treatment without incidents.
The nurses also didn't know what happened. They asked me if I was anxious, nervous, troubled when the incident happened, but I was sleeping and didn't feel particularly anxious. I was enjoying that Lazyboy! Now that I know how to prevent it from happening again, I hope my Chemo session today and tomorrow will go smoothly.
Oh, how frightening, Nicky. I have mild sleep apnea so can't sleep on my back any more because as I drift off to sleep my airway will close temporarily. I couldn't tolerate a CPAP machine so I learned to always, always sleep on one side or the other. It is a scary feeling for sure and much worse if you don't know the cause, as in your case.
ReplyDeleteFour hours is a lot of time to put in with each treatment. I hope your sessions go well.
Thanks Jenny! Chemo day 2 went better because I made sure I sat up straight and avoided falling asleep. I hope today (day 3, the last day of this round of chemo) will go well too.
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