Sorry for the lack of entries the last couple of days. I've been swamped with getting everything together... naturopath supplement suggestions, food supply for Tapwe and I, chemo kit together and ready to go, on and on it goes with tiny details. Diana spent several hours yesterday helping me cut watermelon, make quiche (which turned out awesome), mix up an oral rehydration solution recommended by the World Health Organization, concocting coconut milk and chia pudding (amazingly awesome!), boiling eggs for the fridge, folding laundry and changing the bed sheets. I really couldn't have done it without her help. You ROCK Diana!
I'm too tired to do much entry but I did want you all to know that today went very well. Much better than I anticipated. They started with an IV which Nurse Barbara did excellently, no bruising! They use small gauge catheters - 22g. For those of you that don't know, that's a good thing in the pain of placement department. An IV saline flush was started while the anti-nausea medication, Zofran, took effect (~30 minutes). Then they pounded in the cytoxin. Right at the end of this medication I had some sinus pain, a sensitivity reaction, so they gave me psuedoephedrine and that took care of it. I may need more tonight but the effect should be gone by mid-day tomorrow. Next was more saline to flush all the cytoxin out of the vessels, followed by the docetaxel over about an hour. They started out slowly for the first 15 minutes, took my blood pressure and then pounded it in since I was doing well with it. This is the drug that has the more nasty immediate side effects. I am happy to report that I had none of them. Afterward more saline flush to clear the pipelines of drugs. Then out the door with 3 different anti-nausea medications, should they be necessary, and an antibiotic for the potential white blood count dump.
The steroid, dexamethasone, I took yesterday and today was awesome! It's like a caffeine high. Many of you may recall that I'm a bit goofy on caffeine. That may be an understatement. The important message here is that it gave me a lot of energy and made me feel all happy. I like that. Evidently, it reduces nausea, the immediate docataxel reactions and the delayed docetaxel reaction of leg edema (swelling).Thankfully, I took some laxative last night... which worked as advertised. I know... TMI. I'm told that the anti-nausea medication and sometimes the chemo drugs constipate you. So I'm ahead of the game already! The one thing I forgot was to suck on ice chips during the docetaxel to minimize the chances of oral ulcers. I guess we'll see how dumb that was to forget in the next couple of days.
My good friend, Lisa, from Corvallis drove up last night to come to my chemo appointment with me and we had a blast working on a jigsaw puzzle the FVH staff got me. That really helped take the edge off of the experience and took my mind off of the whole thing. We were so focused on the puzzle that the time flew. I was a little disappointed we had to roll up the puzzle and go. Thanks a BILLION for that gift!
My arm is a bit tired and I'm hungry so I'll leave you with some dumb fruit and veggie jokes I saw at New Seasons advertising their Harvest Festival this weekend.
Q: How do you make an apple turnover?
A: Push it down a hill.
Q: How do you make an apple puff?
A: Chase it around the garden.
Q: What is the most dangerous vegetable when your out at sea?
A: Leeks!
Q: Which veggie makes you dance?
A: The beet!
Q: How did the farmer fix his jeans?
A: With a pumpkin patch!
Q: What did the baby corn say to the mama corn?
A: Where's pop corn?
Q: What is a boot's favorite fruit?
A: A pear!
Q: What do you get when you divide a pumpkin's circumference with it's diameter?
A: Pumpkin pi!
3 comments:
I'm so glad Chemo 1 went well. I've been sending you happy thoughts. I'll talk to you soon. :)
Hmmm, I don't remember having problems posting my comments last time. I'll post one again - although it might come up three times.
I like your jokes - they all made me smile. The one about the pumpkin pi made me laugh out loud!
haha, great jokes!! I'll have to share those with my grandpa, those are his type of humor.
I'm so glad to hear your first chemo went well!!
Post a Comment