First Chemo Treatment Accomplished

I had my first chemo treatment today, and it was pretty uneventful! There's a lot of waiting while they wait for labs to come back (to see how you're doing, to make sure you're healthy enough to receive treatment, to make sure you're not pregnant -- I take pregnancy tests ALL THE TIME now and it's extremely tedious). I also had a meeting with my medical oncologist, who is great, and her nurse, who is even more amazing and answers my many, many questions about the process via the online portal for the hospital. I ask a lot of questions.

In the infusion area, everyone works with a nurse, and each nurse is managing several patients. They're very busy, and they're very nice. They put you in a little bay with a comfortable chair (with heat and massage functions), a little television, a curtain to draw if you want more privacy, and there's a snack station nearby with jello and pudding and assorted cracker and granola bar-type snacks. They also have very small cans of Shasta, juice, and probably some other stuff. I only mention all of this because a lot of people asked me about the snacks so I know this is a thing that the people want to know!

My course of medication for the day was one drip with steroids and one kind of anti-nausea medication (sort of immediate-acting stuff) and then a drip with longer last anti-nausea medication, meant to carry me through a couple of days.

As an aside: In the chemo teach (in which a nurse talks you through the process and answers any questions you may have), it was made very clear to me that if I had a weird reaction to any medication at any time during the process, I should 1. say something 2. expect a whole bunch of people to run over. Can you guess why I'm mentioning this?

That's right! When they started the second IV with the longer lasting anti-nausea medication, I felt a tightness in my chest and it felt a little hard to breathe. So I mentioned it, and they stopped the feed and EVERYONE ran over while assuring me that there was nothing to worry about (I am upsettingly chill about this whole thing and that mood continued throughout this process). Ultimately they decided to handle the longer-term anti-nausea with pills I will be taking every 8 hours for the next few days, and an IV of a different anti-nausea medication at the end of the treatment. I was very, very happy that this didn't derail any of the rest of the day. 

The chemo meds did not cause any weird reactions for me. There were two different medications I received. The first was doxorubicin, nicknamed "the red devil" because it is red and apparently it SUCKS. It can cause mouth sores, so sometimes if you suck on ice while you're getting it, it helps. So I did that. It was fine. It comes in a large syringe, and a nurse pushes it over the course of about 15 minutes while checking for blood return (what this means is they stop the feed, see if they can pull blood back through the IV, and this indicates that the line is where it needs to be and the medication is making it safely into my bloodstream). The second medication I received was cyclophosphamide, and that was just a normal drip. It took about 30 minutes. No issues. I drank a small Shasta cola and hung out.

After all of that, I got an IV injection of some anti-nausea meds, and I got to leave! I had arrived at the hospital around 8:30 in the morning, and I was done around 1:30. It felt a little bit like being in a very weird spa. 

I was supposed to call my partner to come pick me up but it was nice out and I felt ok so I walked over to his house and then everyone got mad at me (just kidding but there was a small amount of outrage about this). Then I took a FOUR HOUR NAP. 

Anyway, I feel fine for now! I've taken my anti-nausea meds for the night, I'm going to go to bed soon, and we'll see how I feel tomorrow! For the next three days, I'll be taking anti-nausea meds on a schedule and steroids on a schedule, so I would imagine I'll be feeling pretty all right. After the first few days, we'll see. I'll keep you posted.