THIS IS BORING!
Sorry I'm posting this so late. I feel an o'blogation :) to keep this current but we've had a crazy night tonight and I just haven't been able to get it done til now.
Brother Dave is here from big D so he volunteered to accompany me to Chemo. THANKS DAVE!
I intended to be on the road by 6:30 but after I logged in to work and ran my daily report, took a shower and ate my breakfast, it was about 6:40... went through Yorkville and got coffee. We were doing fine but then 1/2 mile from the clinic there was some repaving on Lake Street in Aurora. We walked in at 7:35. My bad. They weren't quite ready for me anyway, so I had to wait another 10 minutes.
7:45 - The first nurse took me back for my blood draw. She took out a ton of vials for my blood and we made small talk while she bled me half to death. THE PORT IS A BEAUTIFUL THING. I only had to have one stick all day. See picture. Beats the hell out of a regular IV. The needle hookup, with the "tail" and everything reminds me of something out of the Matrix.
Only this is for good, not evil.
Then another nurse weighed me: 192 lbs. I've been gaining weight, actually, maybe because I've been ingesting everything in sight, you think? The 12 lbs of blueberry cobbler at the family reunion on Saturday helped. And she took my vitals. All good so far.
Then Dr. R. came in and asked how I was doing, and asked about night sweats. I told him I felt fine and wasn't having any night sweats.
He told me that sometimes after the first Chemo treatment, the tumors might "melt" some. He said some patients think that if they're "melting" that they should then be done but reminded me that we have to complete the entire regimen. I assured him that I was "down with that" so to speak.
Dr. R. logged into the computer and made some notes, placed some orders. Then he shook our hands and sent us off to Chemo.
I got a "private room" which just meant I had about a 10'x10' area with a window and walls adjacent to the window. There was a curtain behind me. I had a comfy recliner with shelf like do-hickeys on either side for cell phone, drinks, laptop, etc. Very cozy. This old guy seemed to like it.
Note: I'm not entirely sure of the sequence and the whatsits of the meds, so I may be wrong on some of this.
The nurse came in (she's pals with Julie's cousin Jan's daughter Stacy, I discovered AFTER, very nice lady). She had me take 2 Tylenols to get started. Then she started me on Benadryl drip. I think this was to ward off any adverse reaction to the Rituxan (made from rodent antigen, I think?). Might have been Zofran too?
Whatever it was, it turned out to be the only thing (so far) to kick my ass. Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy.
She went over my blood results, which were all good. Highlights: wbc 5.4, rbc 5.01, hemo 14.5, hematocrit 41.4, platelets 126. Impressive, isn't it? I look for them all to plunge post chemo. I'm only putting them here so if I list them later we'll have a baseline to compare to. That and the 192 lbs.
But before I got sleepy, I fired up my laptop. Only to find out that while it did connect to their network, it wouldn't let me load any pages..... I didn't want to be "that guy" that is needy and a pain in the ass to the staff, so I just use the laptop to take notes.
And then, sleepy. It took me a while to crash, but when I did, I really did. Dave took a picture of me sleeping but I look like a 252 year old man.
Yeah, the camera adds 10 pounds, everyone knows that. But it also adds 200 YEARS! You might want to write that down. Because I do NOT LOOK LIKE THAT!
(Do I?)
Not posting that picture. If you want to see someone that looks that old, check out King Tut, don't be staring at my decrepit old carcass. Live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse? Three strikes on me!
9:03 I'm feeling a little light headed, nurse says that was the Zofran... next time they'll push a little slower.
9:25 Sooooo sleepy, think I'll take a nap, but chemo is next and before I sleep, she starts it.
9: 28 Chemo started with Rituxan. I'm cold and the Nurse gets me a blanket. YESSSSSS! And says they'll ck my vitals in about 1/2 hour... At this point I'm in and out of consciousness.
10:00 Bathroom break. Shortly after they checked vitals and noticed I was freezing to death. They gave me another blanket plus an afghan. Cold, I'm oh so very cold. They have WARMED blankets, which rock!.
"Look at poor grandpa sleeping with 2 blankets and an afghan. He looks, about... oh, 252 years old!... oh my God, he's drooling!"
Just for the record, I did NOT drool.
10:51 Another bathroom break. Then while I doze Dave ducks out for some lunch. My ears itch inside badly. Don't want to look like a newbie, so I'll just suffer silently. If it happens again next time, I'll ask.
11:15 Julie texts, "how's everything?". I text her back that my ears itch, she says she should have come, she could have scratched them. Then she texts me that Dave's at Wendy's do I want anything? No, I'm working on some little snacks I brought in my backpack, trying to push 192 to 195, one tiny bite at a time.
Now I notice that my head/hair itches - Is it already falling out or maybe I didn't get the shampoo rinsed out?
11:40 The scheduler (very nice girl) brings my appointment printouts - the next two Mondays labs, then third Monday (8/16) Chemo again. She asks what I need. Diet Coke appears instantly.
Then, the TV turns itself on. It's a soap. Enough drama in my life, I find something on History, it's Modern Marvels: The History of Chrome! Or some other equally fascinating documentary! How sweet is that? Dave has returned and watches that while he works a crossword. I'm reading a book.
12:35 John break and the drip is done, she then "pushes" 2MG Vincristine. It's in a syringe and she just shoots it into a port in the tubing. She turns on the drip for Cyclophosphamide. Says it will take 30 minutes if I tolerate it well. If I don't tolerate it well (side effect would be stuffy head and nose) she'll back it off to 45. The stuff pretty much raced out of the bag and I didn't have any problems. They unhooked me and we thanked everyone.
Went home and took it easy. Got my scrip for Prednisone filled. Think it makes me chatty and a little wired.
I got tons of calls, visits, texts, etc. asking about me. THANK YOU ALL! I can't adequately express my appreciation. You have all been great. Staff at the clinic was great, too, as usual.
It's 11:05 PM Central Time. I've had a little bit of a vague headache off and on all afternoon, but it hasn't even been enough that I've bothered to take anything for it. And I've had just a little bit of a stomach ache as well, but nothing I can't deal with.
Crossing my fingers to see how I do. Before bed I'll take a Zofran and then take one in the morning also. Then I'm going to live my life as normally as I can.
One down, 9 to go!
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