An update from the first infusion of Enhertu

It’s been quite the few weeks! The first infusion of Enhertu happened on March 1st and we braced ourselves for the outcome. I’d armed myself with a ton of information from a variety of sources and marshaled a rather impressive set of meds to be used as needed. It wasn’t until the pre-meds wore off that I experienced anything of note.

Let me back up and say that the first few cycles of every new medication I’ve been on since my de novo diagnosis of Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) in 2017 has been a bit of a rollercoaster. We get very long lists of potential side effects, we learn more about most likely side effects from the results of the clinical trials to get said medication approved by the FDA and then we hear from each other. It’s a lot of information to take in and we still don’t know exactly how our bodies will react. Neither does our medical team.

And so, I bravely marshaled my resources. The first few days, I was jittery and wakeful despite being tired. Those steroids affect me so much and I’d already told my doctor that I wanted to reduce the dose. She convinced me to try the higher dose the first time.

Once day #4 after the infusion hit, I didn’t have nausea, I was TIRED. The fatigue caused by chemotherapy is like nothing else I’ve ever experienced. Every cell feels heavy. My palliative doc described it this way …. A turtle slogging through peanut butter. Pretty apt description.

When I feel this tired, my brain begins to go down a very dark path. If I can’t keep up with the laundry, take my kids to their activities and do and from school, I feel entirely useless. It’s not a good feeling. I’ve wanted to stop treatment so many times when I feel that badly.

When day #7 came around, it was like the sun came up. I was still tired but nothing like it has been for day 4-6. Whew. It feel so much better to feel like I wasn’t swimming through molasses and to be able to think more clearly. As Elliot kept reminding me, the side effects change and morph and nothing is static.

And so we will make some adjustments for the second cycle (reducing the steroids is a definite!) and I’m going to try a low dose of Ritalin for those bad days. Hoping that this next cycle is a bit smoother and the one after that and the one after that …