January 1, 2017
If you're uncomfortable with talking about butts, you may want to skip this section, there's a little TMI happening here.
During my first infusion, I became constipated from all the different meds. I didn't think much of it, I knew I strained but I had other things to worry about it so it wasn't something I was concerned it.
That is, until I woke up in the middle of the night on December 30th, in extreme pain. My butt was throbbing. Like actually throbbing and I had no idea what was happening to me. I had never experienced a pain like this before, and certainly never in my butt! I was awake the entire night in pain trying to google what was going on.
I finally decided it must be a hemorrhoid. And so began the endless reading of hemorrhoid blogs. I must have read about 1000 peoples butt problems and how they dealt with it. Based on the reading, I decided to try sitting in a bath a warm water. This helped but only temporarily.
I spent the next 24+ hours, in and out of the warm baths and trying to ice my rear end. I got some weird looks from my cat as I laid on the floor, legs in the air, and an ice pack held up to my butt.
None of that helped. I was in so much pain. On New Years Day, my parents came and got me and took me to urgent care. I sat, uncomfortably, in the waiting area, praying that the doctor wasn't some young attractive doctor that I was about to show my butt to.
My prayers didn't work. He was young, and quite good looking, and I had to show him my butt hole. If I was going through the cancer ordeal and already a hot mess in life, I probably would've been embarrassed but at this point, all I could do was laugh.
He did diagnose it as a hemorrhoid and prescribed me some cream for it. I found out hemorrhoids aren't that unusual. Most of my mom friends said they got them during their pregnancies. It's definitely not something I'd wish on anybody - the pain was unbearable.
About a week later, the pain was mostly gone but unfortunately the experience slightly traumatized me and now I'm obsessed and slightly scared of going to the bathroom. My investment of prunes has become comical.
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Chemo #1
December 21, 2016
My first chemo infusion was the same day as my port placement. This was nice because the area was already numbed up and ready to go.
When we got to the oncologist office, they took us back to the chemo room and we picked out a comfy chair to sit in. It was freezing in there and I was thankful I had brought blankets. I was nervous because I didn't know what to expect.
My nervousness quickly turned to annoyance when we found out that the nurse hadn't called in any of my prescriptions that I needed, including one that needed to be shipped to us. So then began the chaos of my mom being on the phone with CVS Specialty Care trying to figure out the delivery, the nurse being on my cell phone with CVS calling in the anti-nausea drugs that I needed, and me on the IPad trying to register for a program that would help me with the $500 co-pay for the Specialty Care medicine.
I highly suggest anyone about to start chemotherapy, talk with your nurse and make sure you have all your prescriptions ahead of time. I shouldn't have had to been stressed out figuring that all out when I was already stressed about my first infusion.
So, when we eventually got that settled, the infusion finally started. Due to my chest already being numb from the port surgery, I didn't feel anything.
Before the actual chemo drugs go in, they gave me a bag of anti-nausea medicine. This made me drowsy, and it came on very quickly. I was fine one moment and then a second later I could barely keep my eyelids open. I was laughing about it, trying to hold them open so I could read on my IPad.
Next came a red bag of chemo drugs and then a clear bag of chemo. I couldn't feel either one of those going in. When the bags were empty, the nurse came and popped the needle out of the port, put a little band-aid on it and that was it. I felt find other than needed to use the bathroom really badly.
Fair warning, the red bag of fluids, makes your urine red and even though she warned me about it, I forgot and freaked out when I saw red on the toilet paper and in the toilet bowl. Took me a moment to remember.
That evening, I started to feel very sore from the port. It wasn't extremely painful, but it was sore. I kept an ice pack on it to help with the pain and the bruising that they said would show up. I had a difficult time sleeping that night, it was uncomfortable turning on my port side so I had to be careful not to roll that way.
I awoke feeling sore and nauseous. My 6 year old nephew came to check on me and he was kind enough to go downstairs to get me ginger ale. I sipped on that a bit, it helped a little. They gave me two different anti-nausea meds in which I was supposed to alternate them every four hours. In addition to those, there were two other meds that I had to take for a few days. More anti-nausea stuff.
I also had to get a shot, the $500 copay shot that was shipped to us. Neulesta. This was to help keep white blood counts up. I'm lucky enough that I was staying with family, which included my doctor brother-in-law. He was able to give the shot to me. It hurt. He put it in my arm. It's one of those shots that just goes in the surface of the skin so you can feel it burning. Ouch.
At this point, I was sore from the port, a giant bruise was starting to develop, nauseous, tired, and constipated from all the drugs but that was it. That is, until day 3. That's when it hit me. The pains. The whole body pains. It was painful to touch me. It was painful to move. I couldn't sit comfortably, I couldn't stand comfortably, I couldn't lay down comfortably, I was just uncomfortable in every way. This pain lasted for 3 days and then it was over.
The pain from the port only lasted a little while longer. The bruise was quite large and lasted for a couple weeks. But I was able to sleep on my side again a week later. Now I can't feel it at all.
And that was my first week of chemo. I survived.
My first chemo infusion was the same day as my port placement. This was nice because the area was already numbed up and ready to go.
When we got to the oncologist office, they took us back to the chemo room and we picked out a comfy chair to sit in. It was freezing in there and I was thankful I had brought blankets. I was nervous because I didn't know what to expect.
My nervousness quickly turned to annoyance when we found out that the nurse hadn't called in any of my prescriptions that I needed, including one that needed to be shipped to us. So then began the chaos of my mom being on the phone with CVS Specialty Care trying to figure out the delivery, the nurse being on my cell phone with CVS calling in the anti-nausea drugs that I needed, and me on the IPad trying to register for a program that would help me with the $500 co-pay for the Specialty Care medicine.
I highly suggest anyone about to start chemotherapy, talk with your nurse and make sure you have all your prescriptions ahead of time. I shouldn't have had to been stressed out figuring that all out when I was already stressed about my first infusion.
So, when we eventually got that settled, the infusion finally started. Due to my chest already being numb from the port surgery, I didn't feel anything.
Before the actual chemo drugs go in, they gave me a bag of anti-nausea medicine. This made me drowsy, and it came on very quickly. I was fine one moment and then a second later I could barely keep my eyelids open. I was laughing about it, trying to hold them open so I could read on my IPad.
Next came a red bag of chemo drugs and then a clear bag of chemo. I couldn't feel either one of those going in. When the bags were empty, the nurse came and popped the needle out of the port, put a little band-aid on it and that was it. I felt find other than needed to use the bathroom really badly.
Fair warning, the red bag of fluids, makes your urine red and even though she warned me about it, I forgot and freaked out when I saw red on the toilet paper and in the toilet bowl. Took me a moment to remember.
That evening, I started to feel very sore from the port. It wasn't extremely painful, but it was sore. I kept an ice pack on it to help with the pain and the bruising that they said would show up. I had a difficult time sleeping that night, it was uncomfortable turning on my port side so I had to be careful not to roll that way.
I awoke feeling sore and nauseous. My 6 year old nephew came to check on me and he was kind enough to go downstairs to get me ginger ale. I sipped on that a bit, it helped a little. They gave me two different anti-nausea meds in which I was supposed to alternate them every four hours. In addition to those, there were two other meds that I had to take for a few days. More anti-nausea stuff.
I also had to get a shot, the $500 copay shot that was shipped to us. Neulesta. This was to help keep white blood counts up. I'm lucky enough that I was staying with family, which included my doctor brother-in-law. He was able to give the shot to me. It hurt. He put it in my arm. It's one of those shots that just goes in the surface of the skin so you can feel it burning. Ouch.
At this point, I was sore from the port, a giant bruise was starting to develop, nauseous, tired, and constipated from all the drugs but that was it. That is, until day 3. That's when it hit me. The pains. The whole body pains. It was painful to touch me. It was painful to move. I couldn't sit comfortably, I couldn't stand comfortably, I couldn't lay down comfortably, I was just uncomfortable in every way. This pain lasted for 3 days and then it was over.
The pain from the port only lasted a little while longer. The bruise was quite large and lasted for a couple weeks. But I was able to sleep on my side again a week later. Now I can't feel it at all.
And that was my first week of chemo. I survived.
Getting My Port
December 21, 2016
This is the morning I got my port surgically placed. A port is this little thing they attach to one of your veins in your chest so they can put the chemo through that vein instead of tearing up the veins in your arms every week.
I tried googling what to expect and honestly I found so many different responses that I didn't come to any conclusion on what the experience would be.
Turns the whole process was about 10 minutes and nothing to worry about.
They took me and mom back to a room. My mom sat in a little waiting area, in the same room as the surgical area.
I changed into a hospital top, they put an IV in my arm and then helped me onto the surgical bed. I had to keep my head turned to the left. They covered my face a bit with towels and I could feel them cleaning the chest area. The nurse then told me she was going to put in the twilight medicine. It wouldn't knock me but it would put me in a dazed state. I honestly didn't feel it at all. Then the surgical assistant said he was going to give me a few shots to numb me and I would feel a little poke, again, I didn't feel those at all either. Not even a little bit.
Then the doctor came in and in less than 10 minutes, he was done. The assistant stitched me up and that was that. I didn't feel anything. I wasn't even dizzy.
Mom and I went straight from here to my first chemo appointment.
This is the morning I got my port surgically placed. A port is this little thing they attach to one of your veins in your chest so they can put the chemo through that vein instead of tearing up the veins in your arms every week.
I tried googling what to expect and honestly I found so many different responses that I didn't come to any conclusion on what the experience would be.
Turns the whole process was about 10 minutes and nothing to worry about.
They took me and mom back to a room. My mom sat in a little waiting area, in the same room as the surgical area.
I changed into a hospital top, they put an IV in my arm and then helped me onto the surgical bed. I had to keep my head turned to the left. They covered my face a bit with towels and I could feel them cleaning the chest area. The nurse then told me she was going to put in the twilight medicine. It wouldn't knock me but it would put me in a dazed state. I honestly didn't feel it at all. Then the surgical assistant said he was going to give me a few shots to numb me and I would feel a little poke, again, I didn't feel those at all either. Not even a little bit.
Then the doctor came in and in less than 10 minutes, he was done. The assistant stitched me up and that was that. I didn't feel anything. I wasn't even dizzy.
Mom and I went straight from here to my first chemo appointment.
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