My Story: 1st Round Complete

So the first day of Chemotherapy was honestly very uneventful. Showed up on time, a little early actually and had my blood work done. SOOO easy with the port, especially since they already left the access needle in during the surgery. Waited a bit for the doctor, but she had a few reminders and questions for me then we headed over to chemo. There was a LOT of waiting involved in the chemo area, they have a very laid back approach, which is a good thing, because it keeps everything calm, but for someone like me who can be a bit impatient at times I just wanted to say GET A MOVE ON!! :) They gave me 2 oral anti nausea meds that are used a preventative, and then I elected to join a small study OSU is doing on the 3rd drug, they have one pill they typically use but are studying another drug that is actually given via IV before chemo that stays in the body longer. I actually received this new IV drug. They have to wait about a half hour after those drugs are administered before starting chemo, so my official start of chemo wasn't until about noon. We were even encouraged to eat something from the cafeteria downstairs while we waited. I had a yummy morning star farms veggie burger!

During the first treatment they administer the drugs separately in case you have a reaction to one, they know which one it is. The Adromycin the nurse sits next to you and pushes via IV like 2ml every couple of minutes, so she uses this time to go over some stuff in your packet of info they send you home with. Once that syringe is in and you don't seem to be having a reaction they'll start the hour long IV drip of the cytoxen and then they'll administer the 2nd syringe of A at the same time. We finished off with a how to do a SubQ injection for the Neulasta. I got to the point of actually sticking the test needle (saline solution) in my belly and I hesitated. I didn't think that was going to be difficult, so Brian bless his heart jumped right in and did the practice injection for me. He's going to be the one to do them for me from now on.

My only complaint is between the nerves, the like 30+oz of liquid I drank and the saline drip I could NOT stop peeing. There is a cute picture of myself below that Brian snapped of me returning from the bathroom pushing my little IV pole along!!

We finished up and said goodbye to everyone and left around 3ish. Around 4:30 as I was heading over to the hotel to meet up with Brian I started feeling a little nausea, nothing bad but I could tell it was there. I took one of the rescue meds for anti nausea and Brian brought me room service of 6 different crackers, soup, hummus, pita bread, carrots, celery, and cucumbers. I was able to munch on stuff and do okay I just didn't really have an appetite for anything, which stinks cause they have really good food here!! :) I finished out the night with a small box of cheerios and rice krispie cereal!!

This am I was able to eat a good sized breakfast of Belgian waffles, strawberries and blueberries, and hash browns with cranberry juice. I ran a couple errands but was BUSHED so I ended up taking a bit of a nap this afternoon. I'm hoping we'll go down to the restaurant for dinner here soon, I'm feeling a little hungry and hope I will be able to enjoy something there!

Brian and I waiting to see the Doc