8/26/13 - 1st Chemo Day

Only picture you will probably ever see of Beppy

This morning I woke up at 6:30 and had a bowl of cereal - Fiber One with a glass of juice. I packed my chemo kit the night before. I took my laptop, kindle, chemo blankie, barf bags, change of undies (just in case), iPod and some other things to keep me busy. As usual, I way over-packed. Bud packed me large amounts of water, pudding snacks, peanut butter crackers and a peanut butter sandwich. The nursing staff must have thought we were moving in.

We left our house at 7:30 and arrived about 8:50 for check-in. My appointment was for 9 a.m. I was met by a lovely nurse named Christy. First she took my weight and then showed me my little cubicle. I got a nice cushy chair and a TV, which I didn't use. Bud, Robyn and George were here with me. Only two people are allowed in the room, so they took turns. The first thing the nurse did was start an I.V. with fluids. She put it in my left arm because I haven't had surgery or any lymph nodes removed yet. I didn't feel the needle go it at all. My arm was a bit sore after the nurse ripped off the tape and took the needle out.

BudBud - Gotta love that face!

Chemo medication

The first chemo drug they infused was Carboplatin. That infusion took about 40 minutes and I had no side effects from the drug. The second chemo was Taxotere. That one took about an hour and there were no side effects from that drug either. I've read that you can have a metallic taste during the infusion, but so far that hasn't happened to me. I've been drinking a lot of water to flush out as much of the meds as I can. Before arriving I had 16 ounces and during the infusion I had about 44 ounces. I had a snack of peaunt butter crackers - yummy - in between the Carbolplatin and the Taxotere.  They started the Hercepin at 11:45, at which time I ate my peanut butter sandwich. That infusion took about 90 min. I'm told the next Herceptin will take about 60 min. and the rest will be about 30 min. I had to go pee two times during the whole process. They let you roll the I.V. poll with you into the bathroom and they instruct you to flush twice.

Good thing I have good veins

The infusion was finished at about 1:30. Then it was time to pick up more prescriptions. I'm thinking about starting a pharmaceutical company with all the drugs they prescribe. After picking up the prescriptions we did what we always do - stopped to get something to eat. Today we went to the Stonefire Grill in Irvine. I had the quinoa, lemon chicken and a bowl of soup. Then we made the 90 minute drive home. I'm feeling pretty good at this point. I took my Zofran pill at 6 pm and so far I haven't experienced any nausea. I'm due to take my steroid pills at 7:30.

The lovely Robyn

 A very kind metastic breast cancer patient told me the anticipation of the first treatment is far worse than the actual treatment and so far that seems to be the case. I guess until you've experienced it yourself, it's difficult to know how you will react. I found out I will start giving myself neupogen injections on August 28 for 10 days. In between that time they will be checking my numbers so I may get to stop them early. During those 10 days,  I also have to take Cipro which is an antibiotic. It sounds like they are watching me pretty closely due to my history.

 

I will report back in the next few days with any side effects that come up.

Thanks for checking on me!

Beppy