First Day of Chemo

Today was my very first day of chemotherapy.

Woke up and got an hour of cardio in (walking at a very high incline since my port still hurts too much to run/jump around.

Showered and then we were ready to go.

The chemo place is conveniently located in the business park that Rob works in so he drove me there, got me settled in my chair (he was only allowed to come in to help me settle in but no visitors are actually allowed in there for the chemo treatments) and away we went.

The thing that I have been most worried about is that somehow the chemo port wasn’t going to work correctly. They told me at the hospital that they tested it after putting it in and everything but I am not only a hypochondriac, but I also think that the worst is going to happen to me in any given situation, so you do the math…

I was prescribed some lidocaine cream for my port entrance to ease with the stick when I got there so I applied that before I left the house and covered it with saran wrap per their orders.

My appointment time was 9:30. I think it was around ten that they came by and hooked up my port to take some blood work.  The way that they work is they have to check your labs before the chemo to make sure your body is ready to handle it. If the labs come back too low, they have to reschedule you to try again.   Thankfully no issues since this was my first time.

My nurse walked me through everything she was doing and because she knew I was nervous about the port, she was extra careful to let me know every step of the way what she was going to do.  Thanks to the numbing cream, I didn’t feel the needle go in and I’m ever so grateful for that.

Once she took the blood she ran it to the lab and we had to wait 30-45 minutes to get the results and since they were good, we were good to go.

The first things they gave me were a steroid, an anti nausea med and a shot to help stave off any stomach cramps or diarrhea.  That took about 30-45 minutes, I think, it could have been an hour.

Once those were done I got the actual chemo.  I had two different bags done at an hour and a half each.  The second one is the one that is supposed to make me really sensitive to cold and I think I am feeling that a little just now because my room temp water in this house is kind of cold because it’s only like 65 in here so while I haven’t drunk it yet to see what happens, it made my fingers tingle a bit when I picked up the bottle.  A little weird.

Around 3:15 they finished up the last bag and got me fitted for my pump.  It’s basically a little fluid sphere that will pump out over the next 46 hours with no battery or electricity and then I go back at three on Wednesday to get it removed and my line flushed until the next round of chemo.

Things I noticed during the actual infusion:

I got twitchy.
My eyes will get twitchy if I’m over tired, stressed or both.  That is typically the only time I notice that.  And it’s usually one or the other.  Both eyes got a little twitchy as well as my right index finger.

I got shaky.
This is ongoing and I noticed it a couple of hours in.  I don’t get shaky usually so it was noticeable, like I when I forget to eat (which NEVER happens) but I had eaten plenty so I know that’s not it.

Mother of all hot flashes.
About a half an hour or an hour into the first chemo bag I got sweaty!  Now, they have taken me off my HRT and I am currently on the 6th day (!!!) of spotting on my period (which as a sub-category, turned into a full blown period today during chemo) so I get that part of it was probably hormones but it lasted until I got home just now and got into less clothes and a cooler temperature house.

Dye Eyes.
This is ongoing as well, I got this towards the end, just very gritty dry eyes.

I’m just now starting to get the hints of nausea so I think I’m going to take some of my anti-nausea meds in a few minutes (not allowed to take the zofran for a couple of days as that is what they put in my IV this morning but I have something called Compazine I can take).

So that is the long and the short of my chemo session at the care center today.  The pump is sitting in a mini fanny pack strapped to my chest as I type this propped up on pillows in bed.

They said the steroid might make it kind of hard to sleep tonight so we’ll see how that goes.

I’ll update if anything fun, icky or interesting happens.  Happy First Chemo Day!!!