Chemo Number One . . . DONE!

Today was my first of four chemo treatments. It was a lot longer of an appointment than I expected, but everything went very smoothly. After seeing the doctor and having the nurse start my IV (she got it on the first try -- superstar nurse!), we were taken to the infusion area on the other side of the office. Since this was my first treatment, one of the nurses talked to us for 30 minutes or so about the process, what to expect, the side-effects, etc., etc., etc. After we "got schooled" we were taken to the infusion room, a big room lined along all walls with comfy recliners (13 in all). There were two other patients in the room at the time and the nurse assured us that it was going to fill up fast and Greg would have to give up his chair within an hour or so.

First I was given the "pre-meds," an anti-nausea drug and a steroid. After that was a saline "rinse" and then the "chemo" started. The first drug, Taxotere, can cause an initial reaction, so they start the drip really slowly, I mean reeeeeaaaalllly slooooowly. The nurse would come by ever 15 minutes or so, check on me to make sure I wasn't having a reaction, and then speed up the drip just a bit. That one bag took about two hours to finish. Then Cytoxan was next. That one took an hour. Then I was done!!

Greg did get kicked out of his chair for a while and had to go back into the waiting room. Since I didn't know I was going to be there for so long, lunch time rolled around and I got really hungry. Luckily they allow you to bring food in and you can eat during the process. Greg went and got me lunch and by the time he got back, the room had cleared out (every single chair was full for a while) and he was able to sit with me for the rest of the time. It was kind of a bittersweet feeling seeing every single chair full. Bitter because it shows you how many people are going through this at the same time, men and women, young and old, all ethnicities. It is so true that cancer does not discriminate. And why sweet? Well, because these medicines are available to treat this disease, and so are the wonderful medical staff that are here to help us and keep us comfortable along the way.

And I have to say the nurses in this office are absolutely incredible. They are very attentive and there are only two of them at a time in the room with 13 patients. They somehow keep track of where everybody is in their treatment and never sat down. They were constantly checking on everybody and knew everyone by name. It was very comforting.

All in all we were there for close to five hours. Next time I'll bring a book and my phone charger. Streaming video on my phone ate up the battery life really fast. But watching True Blood made the time pass really fast. :) Having my husband by my side means the world to me of course, I've always said he's my angel, and he constantly lives up to his angel status. He is amazing, but if you know him, you know that. I also had a couple of other friends with me...you may have heard of them...KISS and HUG. Nobody said much to me about having them there. When I pulled them out of their backpack, I introduced them to the few people that were in the room at the time. Everybody thought they were so cute, 'cause they are!

Tomorrow I go back for a quick shot of Neulasta. It's a drug they give the day after chemo that stimulates your bone marrow to create white blood cells (chemo kills white blood cells). This was not available in 1998 when I went through this the first time, and there was always the fear that my white blood cell count wouldn't be high enough at the next chemo appointment to be able to get treatment. Neulasta is supposed to alleviate this issue.

When I left the office, I didn't feel any different than when I got there, even though I was just pumped with a bunch of drugs. We'll see how the days and weeks progress, but I'm expecting I'll get through the next few weeks just fine...until number two on Sept. 27.