Pre Chemo

I got my Chemotherapy 101 class this afternoon.

I will get 3 drugs via my port - Cyclophosphamide, Vincristine, and Rituximab.

I will take Prednisone orally. I think that is supposed to help me not get sick due to my immune system being compromised. Two other prescriptions will be given to combat nausea and vomiting. And there was one other med that might be prescribed to help my kidneys out (they will be in overdrive because of all the cancerous tissue that's being killed off), it was called something that ended in "-purine".

I would try to describe what each med does but at this point I am very confused myself. There are tons of side effects, and there are other medicines they prescribe to treat the side effects, and so on and so on. My treatments should take 4.5 to 5 hours each.

Here are some of the more interesting possible side effects: "bloody vomit (isn't that a British heavy metal band?) or vomit that looks like coffee grounds", "uncontrollable eye movements" (are you looking at me? why are you looking at me?), "Blood in your urine or stools, painful urination".

One of the "less serious side effects" is "irregular menstrual periods", but if I get THAT, oh boy, it won't seem "less serious" to me!

There's lots more, but you get the idea.

The nurse gave me a lot of information, most of which I've already forgotten. She was hopeful that I would NOT be very sick based on 1) the meds I'm getting and 2) my age (she said I was young!) But she also said everyone's different and I'd just have to see what happens.

White blood cells, red blood cells, hemoglobin. All can be adversely affected by chemotherapy. I could have issues with susceptibility to infection, bleeding, bruising, shortness of breath, etc.

And before each treatment, they will draw my blood and make sure my counts have recovered sufficiently from my last chemo session to allow another chemo session. If the levels are too low, they'll send me home and try again later.

See if you can pick up what I'm laying down here - she said that within 72 hours of the chemo treatment, a guy would have to be careful so that he didn't give his wife chemotherapy, too.

And that's all I have to say about that.

She said that cancer cells are just cells that don't know when to die.

OK, so let's help them die!

She took me back to the treatment room and we set up my first visit, Monday July 26th, 2010 @ 7:30. The scheduler and all the nurses seemed very nice and the space seemed bright and almost cheery.

I asked THE critical question- "do you have WI-FI?". Yes, they do. I will be bringin' the netbook.

I'm anxious to get started.