From the first moment my wife discovered
she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even
ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have
received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than
mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started
this blog…That was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for
answers stumbled across my blog and checked out what I had to say. The
following entry appeared in October of 2011.
Though I talked
very briefly some time ago about what the various chemotherapy drugs that my
wife was treated with were “for”, I never really went into any kind of detail.
Now that chemo is
“over”, I wanted to explore what some of the long-term and lasting effects of
the treatment are. Because she reached that time – what with the odd numbing of
her upper lip, the incision pains, swollen ankles and dry skin, I’d like to
know which of those things is chemo-derived and which ones are not.
So we’ll g0 here
next:
Adriamycin is the
“second” drug of the cocktail she was force fed through the tubes and into her
port every three weeks for six months. At first we called it the “red devil”
because it WAS red and delivered in two, brat-thick syringes attached to the
port tube. The nurse always came dressed in surgical gown, goggles, gloves and
a mask – because getting Adriamycin on your skin could cause BLISTERING. (“And
you’re injecting that into my wife because…”
This all came
clear after research:
“In the 50s,
an Italian research company was trying to find anticancer compounds
from germs that live in the ground. They found one that was promising in an
area surrounding the Castel del Monte, a 13th century castle. A germ that
was related to the common “strep” bug and was bright red worked in trials
against certain kinds of cancer tumors. Some French researchers discovered the
same kind of compound that the strep germ made, so they combined the name of an
ancient tribe that had lived near the castle and the French word for ruby red
and came up with the name of the compound: Dauno-rubicin.
They tested it
against leukemia (blood cancer) and lymphoma (lymph node cancer) and it worked
– but they found that it also damage the heart.
They tried
mutating it and they got another, related drug that worked as well, but wasn’t
so damaging to the heart. They named this new compound Adriamycin, after
the Adriatic Sea. The name was later changed to “doxorubicin” to conform
to the established naming habits of the drug and chemical industry.
Adriamycin acts by
jamming itself in between pieces of DNA in cancer cells. Any cell needs to make
new DNA to make new cells. Adriamycin messes up the work of an enzyme that
uncoils DNA so it can copy itself – it forces the DNA to stay open so it can’t
close up and start splitting the cell to make new ones. The original cells age,
then die, never having made any new baby cancer cells to continue the
destruction of a human being.
But Adriamycin is
DANGEROUS. Aside from the usual nausea, vomiting, and irregular heartbeats, it
can also kill white blood cells (that’s why my wife got a Neulasta shot the day
after chemo), as well as causing complete hair loss. “A more mild side effect
is discoloration of the urine, which can turn bright red for up to 48 hours
after dosing.” (My daughter wrote about this one in her first or second blog
post, “Toxic Pee”: http://twenty.o-my-soul.net/?p=24).
From a Georgia Tech manual for handling toxic compounds, we find this:
“Doxorubicin
(trade name Adriamycin)…is a mutagen, carcinogen, and teratogen, and is highly
irritating to the eyes, skin, mucous membranes and upper respiratory
tract. Statistically significant…genetic
damage have been reported in hospital pharmacists and nurses exposed to
[it]. The toxic effects of doxorubicin
may be experienced if swallowed, inhaled, ingested or exposed to the skin.”
Sheesh! No wonder
the whole scenario creeped us out!
So besides
slaughtering cancer cells, what’s the “rest of the story”? Grave indeed – “the
risks of developing cardiac side effects…dramatically increase.” Doxorubicin
makes the mitochondria (the place that makes the power to run a cell) in the
heart muscles less able to make ATP – which is the energy used to run a cell:
less energy, less strength for beating. Also, when Adriamycin reacts with the
iron in blood, it can damage the heart cells, causing the fibers that tighten
and loosen (making the heart beat) to disappear as well as eating holes in the
cell’s jelly-like insides. Also, some patients may have weeping sores on the
palms of the hand or soles of the feet, swelling, pain and a rash-like reddening
of the skin – sometimes making the skin or hair a different color.
So there you go –
a brief but chilling rundown of what THIS drug does to your beloved…
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