20 October 2011

What Really Went Down in Chemo


My first chemo was two days ago. It was blissfully uneventful.  I think that's the goal they shoot for, having loaded me up with antihistamines and steroids and anti-nausea meds, and them encouraging me to take my OTC pain meds for any discomfort going on.

So they did a quick exam, drew blood and plugged me in.  Here I am starting to get my benadryl and anti-nausea.  The benadryl hit like a brick wall and made me feel pretty dopey, but I recovered once it started metabolizing as it usually wires me instead of knocking me out.  After that I got some more steroids which made my face turn bright red.  Then a little respite while they watched to see if I would blow up or something, and then they started the taxotere with the requisite warnings about letting them know if I was going into respiratory arrest.  

The taxotere took a long time, like about 2 hours.  So while that was happening, I turned to... my trusty iPad with some movies I downloaded.  One chick flick later I was pretty well done with that.  I've been napping a lot during the day and I didn't sleep well the night before chemo because of the other steroids they gave me to take pre-and-post chemo.  But I had so much going on that I couldn't really sleep so instead I just snuggled down
 with my music and toasty blankets and chilled.  Matt ran to wally-world to get me some more ibuprofen and I loaded up to combat my headache. So then they started the cytoxan with the other warning that if I had any ill-effects to let them know right away.  It all went off without a hitch.  Except for the inevitable for me...
I was advised to slam water continually so I spent a good deal of time walking back and forth to the bathroom.  Plugged in.

I was back again yesterday for my shot to boost my white blood count and I mentioned a couple of discomforts but they encouraged me to tough it out and call if they persisted past today.  The only difference I can feel right now is some muscle spasms, my pee smells like chemicals and I have no desire to do anything but lie in bed all day.  Thankfully, I can do so.