One down, Seven to Go

Here's what it was like yesterday:

Lots of waiting, finally get called back, meet my nurse Carol. Sit in comfy recliner (poor parents had "guest chairs") with warm blanket and pillow. Port gets "accessed" which was no biggie as I had covered it with lidocaine cream earlier in the day. The port is AMAZING! Carol had to pull 6 vials of blood out - it was quick and I felt nothing. Anyway, then I sat some more, waiting for my bloodwork to come back. With Van Morrison on the mp3 player and a good book in my hand it really didn't suck. At all. Oh and there was a volunteer masseuse so I had a nice shoulder rub.

Once the bloodwork was back I was given a bunch of pills to take (Decadron, Emend, Zofran) which are all anti-nauseas. After that it was time for the Adriamycin push. Two nurses have to confirm that I am the right person getting the right thing - the stuff comes in giant syringes marked TOXIC all over. Carol just hooked it up to my chest tube and in it went. Didn't feel a thing. After that was the Cytoxan which drips in over the course of an hour. Then a little more saline, a heperin flush and I was done. I had pounded at least 3 liters of water, maybe more, and felt decent although spacy. The whole thing was over in 4 hours.

Then it was off to fill more prescriptions. Not long after getting home I was hit with the beginnings of a migraine and REALLY nasty heartburn but managed to survive the night! I know now that I can take Zantac and Tylenol and head these things off. I had 2 other anti-nausea meds for last night as well - everything worked. No nausea to speak of, knock wood.
I'm going to go on a walk this morning with Mom, who of course is being phenomenal, and I go in to the docs this afternoon for my Neulasta shot (it increases bone marrow production) and that's about it. I expect the weekend to be a lot of laying around.