First Chemo - April 22, 2014

So yesterday was my first chemo day.  It's made up of three appointments.  The first was at 8:10 a.m. to have my blood tests.  They do blood tests first to be sure I'm healthy enough for chemo.  It was the first time they accessed my port.  It was like a staple hit me when the nurse attached a square plastic do-dad to my port.  Then she took several vials of blood through the port, which was completely painless, but weird enough that I didn't want to watch.  My daughter, Macy, was with me and she loves medical stuff and she watched for me.

After taking the blood the nurse put on a round plastic thing with adhesive around the port area and left that plastic staple clip in and sent me out to the waiting room to wait for my appointment at 9:00 with the doctor's assistant, Ricky.  While waiting I experienced terrible pain in the area of my port.  I was pretty much freaking out with worry that I had to have that pain for the next four hours during chemo.  It was excruciating pain.  I paced the halls and rung my hangs trying to get my mind off it best I could.  Finally one of Dr. Haslam's assistants came by and noticed my situation.  She thought I was just terribly apprehensive about having chemo.  I told her about the pain and she took me back to the original nurse who removed the plastic cover.  I found immediate relief and the rest of the day was nothing compared to that.

Chemo is different that I thought it would be.  There are about 20 chairs all spread out in a huge L shaped room.  Each patient chair has a visitor chair there with it, so that two people sit there together easily.  The nurse first hooked up a bag of anti-nausea medicine to my port.  Then when that was done she "pushed" two extra large syringes of "The Red Devil" into me.  She told me that the red devil will make me pee red and lose my hair.  Then another bag of chemo medicine that took about an hour to "drip" and after that she again "pushed" a steroid into me.  None of this caused any pain.  Macy and I just relaxed and talked throughout the whole chemo process.

Cliff picked me up and on the way home we picked up a yummy Kneader's raspberry chicken pecan salad and $26 worth of frozen yogurt.  At home, I gobbled up the salad and rested the rest of the day.  I did feel a little weak and a little nausea that first day, but not too bad.

Today, is known as day 2 or the second day after a chemo treatment.  On the second day of each treatment I get a shot of Neulasta.  This drug helps me build up white blood cells and causes bone pain and flu like symptoms.  They told me to take a Claritin before the shot, which I did.  The Claritin is supposed to help with the side effects. 

After the shot I went shopping with Cliff at Costco and it's 8 p.m. and I still feel great.  I talked with two cancer patients tonight and they both said day 3 - 5 are the hardest for them.  I'm hoping to not be like them.