For the inaugural visit, Jen and Carolyn came sportin' their finest rock shirts. We were the loudest group. I snuck in some vino for the girls, had snacks and a great afternoon of chatting and catching up. In retrospect maybe bringing Indian Pakoras, sour cream and onion hemp kale chips, cheese curds, etc; may not have been the best idea and any nausea may have been caused by my poor food choices. At least I didn't bring wings which I am craving right now...
Actually, why did I bring Indian food to chemo??
The first order of business was reviewing the clinical trial I signed up for anti nausea. The whole goal is to not get sick...So far so good, although its only been 9-10 hours. I meet my home care nurse tomorrow to check in on me.
I have a whole whack of drugs to take. It's really confusing but its all clearly labeled
The first was a bag of red stuff (can't remember the name of which ones) and this is the one that can make you sick, lose your hair and pee red. Almost instantly, I felt nauseous and they stopped the ride, gave me some meds via IV, hooked me back up and off to the races.
The second medication was the nurse using a syringe. This one causes mouth sores so I sucked on Mr Freezies and the third was back on a drip.
All the nurses were wonderful. They kept checking my name. I know its to make sure they don't accidentally give me someone else's meds. But I kept telling them "Yup its me! don't think anyone else will steal my identity for this one!"
I met another young woman who is now receiving Herceptin through her Port. She allowed me to watch how the skin is punctured to receive treatments. I saw everything but the actual puncture. Some things I prefer to remain oblivious to. However, she had all the same type of Chemo and was on the clinical study. She had a little nausea but no vomiting, gained some weight and lost some hair. She has 3 tumours in her breast and due to whatever reason, is having surgery after treatments. After one round of Herceptin, her tumours have shrunk considerably. Wow - makes mine seem insignificant.
Within a couple of hours we were on our way with no issues until Jen cut someone off in the parking lot Then horns started honking, I flipped the bird and almost got out of the car. Great...Right after my first treatment, and I start a fight in the parking lot of the cancer treatment centre.
And you know I wanted to.
I stayed pretty calm the day before until 5 Pm and as I was leaving broke down to my colleague and told him I was scared. I have every right to be - I have no clue how my body will react and at the end of it all, if it even worked. The past week has been a whirlwind of appointments, in addition to my own "prep work" and trying desperately to hold on to a normal routine at work. I thought the day before, not having any scheduled Dr. appointments, would be easy. My phone did not stop ringing: My Oncologist, nurses concerning a clinical trial I am part of for anti nausea meds, pharmacy prepping prescriptions and setting up home care, delivering supplies, etc. I didn't realize any of this would be happening and again felt totally overwhelmed. Of course having a constant nagging pain from the port and running on virtually no sleep, doesn't help. Chemo brain has started before chemo for me
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