Chemo

Hm, what to say about chemo?

I had to be at the hospital by 7:15, which is at least 45 minutes before my bare minimum get-out-of-bed time. Hopefully won't have to do this schedule every time, because it is worse than cancer.

They draw blood and then I see my doctor (only not today, I saw some other doctor because he wasn't in.)

Infusion is scheduled at 9. Probably got going by like 11. It doesn't take THAT long to get the infusion (almost 2 hours), but there's just a lot of down time unfortunately, which doubled the time I was actually in the chair. I get my own little TV with its own DVD player, so that's good. I brought Steppenwolf which I've been reading and some games we didn't get to this time.

My chemo drugs are ABVD. If you want to know more about that, I hear that google website is pretty good.

Literally every oncology nurse I spoke to recommended I get a port-a-cath, a device that is surgically implanted into my chest with vein access to make needling into me super easy. I think they have a deal with the manufacturer or something. It took three of them to get a good IV going (that means 4 needle sticks yesterday -- you see what I mean? It's a conspiracy.) I might well do it, too, because I have at least 11 more infusions (and they draw blood before each one).

I've been prescribed three meds for nausea, the most potent being this stuff called Zofran. It's the A-level 'get out in front of the nausea' drug. They made me take a bunch of it before the infusion (with  a bunch of another one, Decadron or something like that).

Nausea during infusion = none. In the middle of it I had a chicken salad sandwich and soup. All good. My pee turned primrose. No, more of a salmon.

The nurse told me "take another Zofran before you go to bed, and then when you wake up and then stick to the schedule of one every 8 hours for the next two days." This is the plan my oncologist has devised to minimalize the possibility of ever even feeling nauseated. Hey, doc, how do you make God laugh?

By 6pm I am queasy. 7:30pm it is Pukey McZofrantime. (Maybe they just thought I go to bed at 6:45). No actual vomiting, but a feeling I would like to avoid ever again.

I popped one of the B-nausea meds (Compazine) with it to be on the safe side, and took a C before bed (because C is Ativan, also good for chilling out and for sleepies). The meds do help a lot. They also are supposed to make me like debilitatingly constipated. Hooray for modern medicine!

Took a Zofran when I woke up and actually I am feeling ok. Not hungry but ok. I might need a Class D anti-nausea medication. Winky face.

So that's what chemo is like everybody! After almost 6 hours in the hospital you come home to sit around in your pajamas watching TV, feeling kind of tired, waiting for intense nausea to set in with a pile of drugs never far from you in desperate hopes to keep it at bay! In a month, I can add 'watching my hair closely to see how much falls out' to that list.

This is one of those reassuring 'it could be worse' moments, I can just feel it.