Chemo day two update

I'm thru the first 24 hrs of chemo.

First they had to access my port. The nurse was great and did an awesome job. My port is sitting a little deeper than apparently is usual, so she went with a little longer needle, a one and a quarter inch needle. Unfortunately that wasn't quite long enough, so she had to do it again with a 1 and a half inch long needle. Not the most comfortable thing in the world, but in the big scheme of things not that big of a deal. And once the connection was made, it really was quite comfortable.

The first part wasn't that bad. They started out with the steroids and the anti-nausia drugs. The steroids quickly made me feel like I had just downed 10 cups of coffee. Karsten came to visit me during his lunch break, and he said I was talking pretty fast as well.

Then on to the good stuff. The first three rounds of chemo will each consist of three different drugs. Two of them come in big syringes that the nurse hooks up to the lines close to the port. Since it's not that good for the veins, they do it in a special way. They pull back a little, so some of my blood can mix in with the medication, then they push the mix in, and follow with a flush of saline. Rinse, lather, repeat... The last one is in a regular bag and is administered over an hour.

Then I got to go home, and to be honest I felt pretty great. I did the laundry, loaded the dishwasher, cleaned the micro wave, cleaned the silverware drawers, and cleaned the fridge, all in the hour before Natalie came home!

The steroids seemed to wear off slowly over the evening. Natalie and I spent most of the evening watching a movie on the couch, just cuddled up. Of course, I had checked with the doctors before hand, and it's perfectly save for her to be around me after chemo, I cannot transfer the medication to her by touch. I'm so grateful for that.

Later in the evening, the steroids wore off completely, and it was a bit like hitting a brick wall. I was very tired, and had quite a bit of nausea. In general, I think it felt like a good size hangover, though it's been a while since I had one of those! Luckily, it was time for my next round of anti-nausea medication, which helped a little bit.

This morning, I went back to bed after Natalie and Karsten left, and got a couple of extra hours of sleep. This morning I'm feeling pretty good, except that I'm not interested in eating at all (which is a first for me!). I'm also a bit tired, but really not that bad at all. So far, so good!

This afternoon I'm going back to the clinic to get a shot that will boost my immune system. After that, my next appointment is in a week to check my blood counts. Other than that, I'm just hanging out at home for a while. I've been warned that the weekend might be a little rough, I guess we'll see. I've got some pretty good meds to help me out, so I'm not too worried.