The Chemo

Tuesday, Oct. 11: I have my appointment at 9:30. Robert is there with me. I first have blood drawn from my port. This will be done everytime I come in to check white blood cells and numbers for organs, like liver. If my white blood cell level drops too low then I will have to skip chemo and take shots to raise the levels before I can take the chemo again. Dr. Maity comes in and explains the treatment. I will start with Taxol every week and avastin every other week. Taxol is a chemo drug. The side effects are joint pain and tingling in hands and feet. There can also be nausea, hair loss and a few other things but it is more mild chemo and the side effects aren't as severe. Avastin is not a chemo drug. It interferes with a cancer cells ability to grow vessels to a blood supply. If it is not able to grow these vessels then it will die. So, we get all of our questions answered and go ahead with chemo that day. It takes a much longer time than I had anticipated. It goes like this: They already have a needle in the port from checking my blood so I go into "chemo room" (is what I call it.) There are lounge chairs lined up, 5 on one side 5 on the other. There are tvs with remotes in front of each chair so you can watch tv. The nurse comes over and hooks up a bag of fluids and that goes in. I forgot to mention, they also give a steroid, benadryl and anti-nausea medicine in my IV too. Then they gave me avastin which took an hour and a half to go in. They then gave me taxol, which took an hour to go in. I then get another bag of fluids. The nurse then gives me a syringe of saline followed by heperin to keep my port clean and so it will not clog up. And then I am done! I was finished with my first chemo at about 2:00. I didn't have any side effects while my chemo was going in, but I sneezed all day and night. I even woke myself up sneezing. I also had horrible heartburn. I am going to see if it is a chemo reaction or if I am getting something form Allison, who is sick.