Chemo treatment #1 done!

My first treatment is done and overall, it went better than I had imagined, as has often been the case in my cancer journey.

Our first stop was the lab.  There was some confusion as to what my orders were. I offered to just turn around and go home and we all laughed (and I did not go home).  Mary-Beth, my chemo nurse had decided to do the lab blood draw through the port rather than my arm and that is something she needs to do, not the lab.  So we set off for the Infusion Suite to face the first thing I was really worried about for today - the first needle stick into the port.  This is not your average needle.  It is the circumference of a thumb tack and the port wound is still healing.  Mary-Beth assured me I'd be fine but offered to get an ice pack which I put on for 10 minutes.  Then she told me to take a deep breath in and then out,   She stuck me on the out. I barely felt a thing. HUGE sigh of relief. She got me taped up (since the same needle would be used for chemo) and sent me off to meet Dr. Sinclair.

I LOVED HER!   Great bedside manner.  Smart.  Dr. Weiner is her mentor so she is very well connected to him.  She goes to Boston a few days a month to see all those docs in person.  She answered every question and kept stopping to make sure I understood everything about what was going to happen. She had read up on my case and spoken with Boston.  She even was there when they presented my case to the tumor board. I told her so many people had been saying nice things about her and she said the same about me.  She is totally on board with me being vegan.  This is definitely the right doctor for me!

We headed back to the infusion suite and they got everything started.  Before chemo, I got fluids, Ativan (Xanax-like calming medicine), 2 anti-nausea meds and steroids (to help in case of allergic reaction.  The Ativan hit me pretty quickly.  I might go without it next time so I can actually read a book or something.  I was a little too loopy to concentrate.   ;).   Then we moved onto the chemo drugs.  First up was adriamycin, AKA the red devil because it is a bright red.  It also turns your pee orange/red, which happened immediately for me.  That took about 15 minutes to push via 4 big syringes. Then is was on to cytoxan which was in a regular IV bag.  That took about an hour.  The whole infusion flew by, I think becasuse it was constantly moving on from one thing to another.  They brought lunch around but unfortunately not one this was vegan, for the lunch main course.   So I ate some fruit and a granola bar.  Next time, I'll bring a salad or PB&J sandwich.  Luckily we left around 1pm so I just ate a sandwich at home.  It was kind of odd.  It just ended and we left!

We got my next 3 treatments scheduled since there are 4 treatments in total of the adriamycin and cytoxan.  Last 4 are taxol which will get scheduled once we know I can handle the first four.  Dr. Sinclair expects this will be the case.   I go back next Tuesday for labs to check my white blood cells and just generally check in on how I am doing.  Dr Sinclair will be in Boston but I will see Mary-Beth and she can talk to one of the other oncologists if we need someone.

Basically, they told me to call anytime day or night with any and all symptoms.  All the doctors and nurses are there to make sure I have the best possible experience.   I feel very well taken care of!


Here are my Supergirl socks which gave me strength today.  Thanks Evelyn!