Chemo Number 5

I had chemo yesterday. It was my 5th over all treatment, my second of the new treatment. Treatment days are long and yesterday was especially long. My appointment with my oncologist was scheduled for 1:20 pm and I didn't get home until around 8:00 pm. It doesn't always take quite that long, but the days are always pretty taxing.

The good news is that my oncologist is really happy with the way my tumor looks and he thinks that it has shrunk with the new chemo. I had noticed some positive changes, but wasn't sure how excited to be. He said that he was VERY happy with the results. I'll have either 2 or 4 more treatment, depending on the response. Then I will have surgery and maybe more chemo and/or radiation (again depending on what happens with the rest of this chemo and the results of surgery) and then reconstructive surgery. So, it is still going to be a long road, but I am moving along on the road.

Part of the reason that chemo days are so long is because there is just so much to do. First you get to the office, check in at the front desk and then get a lab slip. Then you go to the lab. For some reason the lab always seems to be backed up and it takes a long time there. The nurse accesses my port and then draws my blood.

After the blood draw I take the slip back to the front desk and wait for the nurse to call me back. The wait depends on the day, and yesterday wasn't too bad. The nurse takes my vitals and then checks on my meds and how the week went, etc. Next up, the oncologist. He comes in, checks on how everything went since my last treatment and then does a quick physical exam. Note to self from yesterday: this part is much easier if you don't wear a dress.

The oncologist checks blood results to make sure that I am healthy enough for chemo and then sends me to the infusion floor. The wait on the infusion floor always seems to take forever. Yesterday it was almost 2 hours--they were really behind for some reason.

When a chair is finally ready, they call you back and get your meds ready. First they give you a bunch of pre-meds, including anti-nausea medication and steroids. Those seem to take about an hour. The prize for this is a sack lunch :) Then they start the actual meds. One of my new meds has to be manually pushed and it is bright red. I try to just ignore it--though I feel badly about having the nurse sit right next to me and me complete ignore her. Yesterday I gave a quick explanation that "vegging" allowed me to get through it. I felt guilty, so finally turned off my movie and chatted with her during the second vial.

After the "red devil" (that's what they used to call this medication because of its horrible side effects), the nurse hung my second drug and I went back to my iPad.

Everything seemed to be fine until right at the end of the infusion, when I started to itch and break out in hives. To treat this, they gave my more steroids (of a different type but I can't remember which). Fortunately after two doses of the supplemental steroids, the hives were mostly gone and I was able to go home.

I came home to some beautiful floors an a stuffed puppy from my dog sitter. It was a very nice surprise after a tough day!