Round 1: November 19
I've never been the type of person who was nervous about new situations, but my first day of chemotherapy was definitely a mix of emotions. All the delays caused by the difficulty with getting my mastectomy incision healed meant that chemo had been put off almost a month from the original start date. It had been a while since I first met with the oncologist, and while I was not exactly excited to get this thing going, I was definitely ready to get it over with. At the same time I was very nervous about what was about to come.
The day began simply enough with some lab work, to make sure I was in good enough condition for my first treatment (meaning my white blood cell count was high enough to withstand the onslaught of drugs coming my way without increased risk of infection). The doctor said my white blood cell count was exceptional, so we could go forward.
The next couple of hours were actually fairly relaxing--the Huntsman Cancer Center has a really nice infusion center where they have several pods that include four sections, each one complete with a recliner for the patient, another chair for a friend or family member, a couple of small desks, and even your own television with a blu-ray player. The view is also beautiful, overlooking the whole Salt Lake valley. Since my only experience with chemotherapy prior to this was basically Breaking Bad and the movie 50/50, I was expecting a small room with a few recliners placed in a semi-circle where I would have to stare awkwardly at people much older than me while we all got our bi-weekly dose of poison.
We also learned that on Tuesdays they show movies on a projector screen that covers the big windows, but apparently they only show educational stuff, so it's like the movies you had to watch in 8th grade when the teacher was out and you had a substitute. It's no Man of Steel, but I guess that has the effect of helping you sleep through your chemotherapy if you prefer.
The first four treatments will all be the same, beginning with the anti-nausea medication Dexamethasone. Once that's done dripping in, the nurse injects the Doxorubicin by hand, which comes in three small vials that have to be slowly injected over the course of 5-10 minutes (it begs the question, why can't they just get bigger vials, then only have to inject one over the course of 20-30 minutes?). Then we finish up with the Cytoxan, which takes about an hour to drip in through the IV. Overall it's about 2 to 2.5 hours, which isn't really that bad.
The Fun Part
Getting the actual chemo infusion is kind of the easy part--the really fun part is figuring out what it will do to you once you have the drugs in your system. As mentioned in my previous post, there is a laundry list of potential side effects, and in the grand scheme of things, I was actually pretty lucky. I did have a little bit of nausea that was pretty well controlled with all the anti-nausea meds they gave me, and aside from that the only major side effect was fatigue. I felt more tired and slept more than usual, but only a couple of hours more each night, which was kind of great.
I also had to go and get a shot of Neulasta at the University of Utah Daybreak Clinic the next day, and they mentioned that I might have some "bone pain" following the shot. I didn't know what that meant at the time, but on Saturday night I discovered that it feels kind of like you have bruises everywhere on your body, especially in areas where you have large bones, like your hips, shoulders, sternum, and femurs. Fortunately I took a Lortab and fell asleep on Saturday night to find that it was gone by Sunday.
I was also able to go back to work (although not all 40 hours), and even got to go back to CrossFit Timpanogos for the first time in 8 weeks. I loved it, even if I did kind of feel like I was on the verge of death after getting so out of shape in the past two months. With two weeks behind me, now it's time to find out what Round 2 would bring.
We also learned that on Tuesdays they show movies on a projector screen that covers the big windows, but apparently they only show educational stuff, so it's like the movies you had to watch in 8th grade when the teacher was out and you had a substitute. It's no Man of Steel, but I guess that has the effect of helping you sleep through your chemotherapy if you prefer.
The first four treatments will all be the same, beginning with the anti-nausea medication Dexamethasone. Once that's done dripping in, the nurse injects the Doxorubicin by hand, which comes in three small vials that have to be slowly injected over the course of 5-10 minutes (it begs the question, why can't they just get bigger vials, then only have to inject one over the course of 20-30 minutes?). Then we finish up with the Cytoxan, which takes about an hour to drip in through the IV. Overall it's about 2 to 2.5 hours, which isn't really that bad.
The Fun Part
Getting the actual chemo infusion is kind of the easy part--the really fun part is figuring out what it will do to you once you have the drugs in your system. As mentioned in my previous post, there is a laundry list of potential side effects, and in the grand scheme of things, I was actually pretty lucky. I did have a little bit of nausea that was pretty well controlled with all the anti-nausea meds they gave me, and aside from that the only major side effect was fatigue. I felt more tired and slept more than usual, but only a couple of hours more each night, which was kind of great.
I also had to go and get a shot of Neulasta at the University of Utah Daybreak Clinic the next day, and they mentioned that I might have some "bone pain" following the shot. I didn't know what that meant at the time, but on Saturday night I discovered that it feels kind of like you have bruises everywhere on your body, especially in areas where you have large bones, like your hips, shoulders, sternum, and femurs. Fortunately I took a Lortab and fell asleep on Saturday night to find that it was gone by Sunday.
I was also able to go back to work (although not all 40 hours), and even got to go back to CrossFit Timpanogos for the first time in 8 weeks. I loved it, even if I did kind of feel like I was on the verge of death after getting so out of shape in the past two months. With two weeks behind me, now it's time to find out what Round 2 would bring.
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