Round 1!

So this week was round 1 (of 4) of chemo. I honestly had very little idea of what I was in for. I've found that through all of these treatments, surgeries, etc., I've been pretty calm. I think the lack of knowing has actually led to less anxiety oddly.  The nurses (and my mom) are constantly commenting on how low my blood pressure is.  (Note: I had no idea going into this what a good blood pressure was.)

My chemo treatments last about 3 hours. Some of them are just hung in an IV bag, and one has to be "pushed" into my port.  They start you off with anti-nausea medicine to head off any nausea you might experience.  (Greatly appreciated!) The one that gets pushed in is bright red and it takes three large syringes full to get the job done. (Note: The red chemo makes my urine pink, adding to the rainbow of colors my urine has turned during this.)

You can either have a room to yourself or sit in the large open treatment room. This time I got a room to myself, I think that's because I was a newbie.  I think I like having my own room. You get a tv (which entertained my mom) and it's more personal. Some of the rooms have recliners (like mine) and some have beds. I guess it would be nice to take a nap during the process, especially since some treatments can take up to 8 hours!

The nurses were very nice and explained everything. They were slightly surprised that I had just gotten my port two days before. I wasn't able to numb the port site because it was all bandaged, so the pain of having the IV put into the port was really the only pain I had.  That won't happen the next time because I'll be able to put the numbing cream on ahead of time.

To keep myself busy, I played on my iPad, and opened the presents that my friend Sarah has sent along. Every so often the machine would start beeping to say that my IV bag was empty and then they would come add another medicine to the mix.  My mom went and picked up Wendy's along the way because she hadn't eaten. Fries were a lovely chemo treat!

They sent me home with two anti-nausea medications with the strict instructions that I take the one at the slightest hint of nausea and take both at bed time.

That night I felt pretty good other than a pretty good headache.  The next morning I woke up with the same headache. After not getting it to break with Ibuprofen, my mom finally realized that it was probably a "lack of caffeine" headache. I was told to drink 64oz of liquids each day and that anything with caffeine wouldn't count. Well, that didn't mean I couldn't have caffeine! As soon as I had a Diet Coke all was well. (And yes, it does disturb me that my body needed that Diet Coke...)

Thursday afternoon I had to go in for a shot to get my white blood cells going. This will always happen the day after the main chemo treatment. They told me that I would probably be really sore from this because it causes a lot of activity of your white blood cells in your bone marrow. Really, I haven't had much pain. At the end of the day my shoulders and neck are pretty sore, but that could also be from lounging on the sofa for many days.

I know that I'm REALLY lucky for how well this is going so far and I'm not taking that for granted. They said that usually how the first treatments go is what you should expect, so I'm hoping that the next three go smoothly.

Thanks as always for the texts, calls, emails, thoughts, prayers, food, flowers and hilarious packages. You guys rock!