Took off Friday as my appointment for chemo was fairly early and the process would take 4 hours. Robin went with me along with an iPod, a Kindle (thanks, Mom!), a word search, and a bag of snacks and stuff. The "Infusion Suite" was a long room with probably a dozen large recliners. Next to each recliner was an IV infusion machine. In the back corner was a bed with a hospital style wrap around curtain. In the center of the room was a small game table where someone had left a partially completed jigsaw puzzle. It was pleasant and very clean.
This day had been looming for some time but I was even up to the last minute much more calm than I should have been. I know where that peace came from but was surprised to have received it.
I have used abbreviations for people since I haven't cleared any of this blog stuff with anyone. I couldn't think of a cute nickname or abbreviation for the nurse who actually handled my treatments (2 of the 3 anyway) and took very good care of not only me but my family as well. I will just call her T. T has a special place in my heart and the hearts of my family.
T kind of gave me the run down of how the treatment would go. I would have thought it would have been more complicated but there wasn't much to it, especially from me. My job was to just sit there... She grabbed a large bag of fluids, saline I believe, which would always be step one in the treatments. She hung the bag on the tree, threaded the line and prepped my arm. When she touched my arm with the needle, I immediately got light headed and broke into a sweat. I was VERY embarrassed and told her I have never been afraid of needles and had actually been stuck more times in the last several weeks than my previous life combined! She told me not to worry and that it had nothing to do with the needle. She said, "Everyone prepares themselves for the first treatment, but until your butt is in the recliner it isn't real. Now it's real." I drank some grape juice, ate a cracker and we got on with it.
When I finished the large saline bag, T brought a splitter and on one side plugged in a small bag of anit-nausea meds and on the other side plugged in a small bag of steroids. She explained that the steroids kicked the anti-nausea meds into a whole 'nother gear and that they had much success with the combo. While I was getting the combo platter, T went into a small adjacent lab area to mix the chemo drug - cisplatin. It's kind of unnerving to see someone put on a protective smock, large gloves and a face shield, mix up a bag of stuff and then walk over and put it in your veins. That's what happened right after I finished the combo. I felt some discomfort in my arm from the cisplatin and after a few minutes waved T over and told her. She slowed down the pump a bit and things got better. After finishing that bag, I got one more large bag of saline and I was done. Right at 4 hours elapsed. I had plenty of time to ask questions during the day and this is what I had learned about the part of my treatment I had dreaded so:
1) The day and night of chemo day you feel GREAT! The steroids make you a bit jittery and you don't get much sleep that night but you feel really good.
2) Day 3 is the worst. Flu like symptoms, just yucky.
3) You get better after that but never quite make it back to where you started. For example, she said you will do great on the first one because you are at 100%. The first one knocks you down to like 60% but you eat and rest and build yourself up and in three weeks you've made it up to 85%....but now it's time for your second round. Also, that is right around the time when some of the radiation effects kick in. Bottom line, the last one is a bitch.
Unplugged me, bandaged my arm and sent me to radiation. 15 minutes later, Robin and I met Alex at a Chinese buffet and I did my best to put them out of business.
Most everything T said about the chemo treatment was accurate. The exception was I never really felt bad. The worst thing I felt was the way you feel when you are about a day away from getting sick, not achy but not quite right either. By Day 4 after chemo I was doing great again. Even went for a 7 mile run. It would be my last for a long while.
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