1st Day of Chemo Follow Up

Things didn’t go quite as I had planned yesterday.  I might as well warn you that I’m not going to sugar coat anything and if that is going to turn you off from reading this well…then I'm sorry but so be it.  But I’ve asked my Dr.s to all be very straight forward with me and that is what I plan on doing when I talk or write about this.  

Maureen and I made it right on time to our appointment yesterday.  Notice I say “our” because the poor thing has agreed to go to all my chemo appointments, hee, hee, hee.  We had a nice corner area over looking the Charles River right at Longfellow Bridge, it was a beautiful day.  You are assigned the same nurse for all your Chemo treatments and I have a very wonderful nurse assigned to me.  They used my newly acquired super power; ok the power port in my chest to draw bloods, but super power sounds so much cooler.  I’m assuming that at one time or another we’ve all had blood drawn and let me tell you she already had like two tubes filled before I realized she was even doing it, it was great.

OK so on to the treatment itself.  First I had to talk like 5-6 pills, mostly for nausea, I think, I was just trying to be very compliant and she said take these and I did.  Then the first chemo med was a push med which using a syringe she “pushed” into my power port over maybe 10 minutes or so.  Side note that this med also makes my pee orange, and my tears orange, just incase you wanted to know.  Next drug had to be infused into my chest over two hours.  It did not hurt at all, barely knew it was even there or going in.  Great, finished around 1pm…now lets get the hell out of here. 

Well we are not even out of the hospital and side-effects start hitting me.  First my voice starts acting all Bobby Brady and I have no control over it.  Then the big side effect – sensitivity to cold.  This one I think is going to put me over the edge.  By the time we got home to Bridgewater around 2:30ish this side effect was in full swing, more about that in a bit.  But for the most part once I was home I told Maureen to go home, that I was fine and was going to just go lay down until it was time to get Paul off the school bus. 

Well once she left things just went down hill….the big D hit me, and then the Nausea (but don’t worry just dry heaves, ughhhh)  Then remember that sensitivity to cold side-effect, I can’t touch anything even remotely cold.  Door knobs, faucet handle, toilet flush, oh my gosh the soap from the hand pump…brutal.  Can’t drink anything cold and all I want is ice chips and ginger-ale but it kills to try and drink.  To top it all off during this I’m sweating like a pig and nausea.  It was horrible. 

About 9pm I broke down and called the Dr. who amazing called me back in less than 5 minutes.  They were surprised at how fast things hit me, usually they say it takes 4-5 days so start feeling sick (so I guess I still have something to look forward to) but it may have just all been anxiety related.  Apparently no matter how much I’d like to think I’m in control and will tell myself that I am, my mind has a mind of its own and at some point will let that anxiety get to me. 

Feeling much much better today, big sissy came over and took very good care of me.  We’ll see what the next few days have in store. 

As always thanks for taking the time to read my story, I know lately they have been pretty long but I do think it is helpful for me to get this off of my chest.   Please don't be shy about leaving comments if you'd like.

Hugs and Kisses - Barbara