Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Chemo Day 1 Report

Robert and Kevin and I all went to chemo together today at 1:45. There was a lot of preliminary information for my nurse Theresa (an Irish lass with a good sense of humor) to impart this first time, so altogether, the session took a little over 3 hours.

Future sessions should be a little shorter. I will have an infusion each time (both drugs are being given intravenously, it turns out), preceded by a hefty dose of zofran and decodron to fight nausea. I will also be taking those anti-nausea drugs all week, twice a day during infusion weeks. I have compazine as a booster, if they aren't doing the job. I imagine future sessions will take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

I also have Human Growth Factor injections to give myself at the end of each cycle for 7 to 10 days. These are intramuscular shots that Theresa will teach me about tomorrow. I'll be shooting myself in the thigh. These shots may cause bone pain, since their purpose is to stimulate the bone marrow to produce more white cells.

Today was easy. No nausea so far. I feel a little woozy from the zofran/decodron cocktail, and have a bit of a headache, but otherwise I feel fine.
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6 comments:

  1. MarySeptember 29, 2009 at 5:35 PM

    Just take it easy and don't overdo

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  2. RobertSeptember 29, 2009 at 6:36 PM

    I'm convinced that the headache is from lack of coffee which made you lash out at me in the car making me cry! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnkaDSeptember 29, 2009 at 9:45 PM

    I hate that I made you cry, but these days, I have to just quote Truvy in Steel Magnolias and say, "Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion!" Even though I was being a Ouiser at that particular moment, and not a Truvy. We did eventually get a laugh out of it.

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  4. Why Take a "Break"?September 30, 2009 at 9:52 AM

    You as Ouiser... trying to picture that.... okay, there!

    I'm sure you're being told this, but just in case--my doctor told me that I could take 400mg Tylenol and 400mg Ibuprofen together to fight the bone pain. Just FWIW.

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  5. UnkaDSeptember 30, 2009 at 10:41 AM

    They told me I could take Tylenol or a prescription pain med, but no ibuprofen. The pharmacist also said that doing it at night and taking a sleep aid helps because it's possible to sleep through the pain that way. We shall see.

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  6. jvauxSeptember 30, 2009 at 3:16 PM

    Human Growth Factor? Does that mean you'll be 10 feet tall when chemo is over?

    ReplyDelete

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