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.