Adriamycin

Last time I had chemotherapy I had 6 infusions 21 days apart of taxotere, adriamycin, and cytoxan. Every drug has its own side effects. One that adriamycin has is heart damage. That damage is the reason there is a limit on how much you can have in your lifetime. The limit is based on your individual body surface area. I had the MUGA test to see how much damage adriamycin caused for me. I thought it probably caused very little, because I had exercised regularly in the years between the two cancer times. One type of exercise I did one year was jump rope for 20+ minutes 4 or 5 times a week. I thought if anything jump roping would show heart damage. Besides exercising I went to week long Girls' Camp in a higher elevation and hiked around for two years with no problems. When I saw the doctor on Monday he said that the normal heart range for the MUGA test is between 55 and 65 and I was at 56. I was already close to my lifetime limit of adriamycin based on the dosage from last time, but with the results of my MUGA I know that I will not be having adriamycin again. I need my heart for 50 more years. I am glad that I did not know where my heart function was before because I would have had different expectations for myself. Now I know that even though I have a 56, I can still do all those things.