Today I started my chemotherapy. It went a lot better and was much less traumatic then I thought it would be. It was nice to have my partner Chris there, and it was an added bonus that my mom and her husband are in town and were able to come as well.
The day started with blood work and a two hour wait for that to come back; we went for breakfast (which I'm very grateful for now as it's been the last full meal I've eaten all day) and decided to return to the waiting room at 9:30am.
At around 10am, my name was called and I was brought into the treatment room. I was settled into a very comfortable lounge chair and three other chairs were brought around for my family to be able to sit with me. My vital signs were taken and I took the dose of Prednisone that is part of my treatment. My nurse (how awful of me to have forgotten her name) then started my IV and ran a small bolus of normal saline. My first medication was then Zofran, to help with any nausea that I might experience (!).
I then had a dose of Cyclophosphamide and then my prescribed does of Doxorubicin (and later found out it's nicknamed Red Devil because of it's colour, and the effects it has on the poor suckers that have to have it injected into their veins), followed by a dose of Vincristine and then Etoposide.
All in all, the actual administration of the medication went quite well, and in total only took approximately 5 hours, which is about what I had estimated, so was totally prepared for it.
This brings us to the drive home, and how the nausea started while I was on my way to find my mother as she was attempting to do me a huge favor and buy me an air purifier (my idea) and a juicer (her idea). I could feel my stomach start to turn a bit, and decided to take some of my anti-nausea medication that I had with me (prescribed by my doctor weeks ago), and take a moment for some fresh air. It seemed to work and I was good until I got home with my new air purifier and a rain check for a juicer (that's currently 50% off; who doesn't love boxing week sales, even after a chemo treatment?!). I sat on the couch and tried to will the nausea away (it was another 4 hours before I could take my Stemetil and I really didn't want to barf so I was willing to try anything).
That worked well enough to make me feel like I could have some whole wheat pasta and tomato sauce, and a few saltine crackers.
The nausea didn't like that and came back with a vengeance! I fought with my stomach for about half and hour before I gave up and promptly ran to the bathroom, where I yaked up everything and more. Surprisingly, I immediately felt better, rinsed my mouth and brushed my teeth and gobbled down some more crackers.
It was then time to take my Kytril and an hour later, I took more stemetil.
It's currently 10:55pm, just a little over 12 hours since my first chemotherapy medication, and I'm going to bed! I'm exhausted, and I have to do another treatment of etoposide in the morning (it's 3 days of treatment for that one specific medication).
G'night inter-web world!
