THE WORLD OF CHEMO

Before I could start the chemo I had to have a heart test called a muga-scan. This was done at the hospital to make sure I had a strong and healthy heart because one of the drugs I’d be taking is hard on it.
Then I drove down the road to the cancer center for my cancer talk. For the first time I got to go into the back where everybody receives their chemo treatments. It’s a big open room with large windows facing the fake lake in the back of the building. There were lots of recliners with small tables and chairs for care-givers. I saw a variety of men and women hooked up to IV’s looking amazingly calm and quite at home. The other thing that stood out was how many were munching away on their lunches. Thank goodness none look like they were at death’s door! A nurse then took me into a back room where she described how my sessions would go and what to expect. She then discussed potential side affects and how to counter them. I had already read tons of material on the subject so I felt prepared as I asked questions. The main thing that stood out in this little interview was her comment on duration. She said that since I was doing only four treatments, I should have fewer side affects. She said that I was very lucky! I was most heartened by this comment. I guess it makes sense that the more treatments, the more the body is worn down. Still chemo is chemo and everyone reacts differently, I just hoped that it would go smoothly. I would have four treatments every other week. So that put my last treatment in the middle of December, what a great Christmas present!

I had my first treatment on October 30th at noon. When I got up in the morning I ate a good breakfast (they said that was important) and I took my anti-nausea drug called Amend. It better be good seems how it costs $75 for three pills! Then I had my husband give me a priesthood blessing which was very comforting. It said things would go smoothly and my body would be able to handle the drugs. After we arrived I signed in and made myself comfortable in one of the chairs. I brought a huge water bottle and a book to read. I confess I never opened the book; I was much more interested in watching everything and everybody in the room. I wondered what their stories were and I hoped they were all responding well to their own treatments!

When I had met with my doctor the week before, he told me that I would not have to have a port put in. That’s because I was only doing four treatments and could alternate arms for the IV. Those who have lots of lymph nodes removed have to deal with a condition called lymphedema which can cause many problems with that arm. So many blessings! So they put the IV in my left hand. They never start farther up the arm just incase there are problems and have to find a new site. The first thing they do is run saline through the vein to make sure it can handle the job. I could feel the cold saline go through the vein up into my arm. Now that is a weird sensation but it’s what the nurses want to hear because that tells them they tapped into a good one. The first bag of goodies was anti-nausea drugs and a steroid to help minimize the side affects, this took about eight minutes to go through me. Next came the first and scariest chemo drug. It is called Adriamycin. It has to be given by syringe directly into the central line by the nurse. The drug is red in color and very toxic. It can cause tissue damage if it escapes the vein, so they give it by hand very slowly diluting it with saline while I pay close attention to any changes on how I feel. This way they have complete control over the situation. There were two syringes and it took around fifteen minutes. Then they ran a syringe of saline through the line to make sure there is nothing toxic left in my vein. I confess it was very creepy watching this go into my body knowing what it could do, but I didn’t feel a thing at all which was a relief.

The next drug is called Cytoxan. It’s given with saline in a bag which took around 40 minutes to complete. Once more I didn’t feel any different which was normal. During this time I was told to drink like crazy so I could flush these drugs out of my system as fast as possible. Once they are in the body, they do their job immediately. Here is a quick explanation of what they do. Their job is to kill fast growing cells. Unfortunately it can’t differentiate between cancer cells and other fast growing ones. Hence, the side affects. That is why patients loose their hair, have mouth sores, and digestive problems. It also affects the bone marrow so red and white blood cells and platelets are destroyed making one tired and susceptible to infections. The reason there is nausea has to do with the brain trying to get rid of a toxic substance.

The last bit of advice I got was to eat and drink at least 16 glasses of water in the first 24 hours to get rid of all of the chemicals out of the body. I was also told to go to the bathroom often so nothing toxic would be sitting in the bladder. That made sense to me and I followed that advice to the letter.

After we left, we grabbed a bite to eat then went home. This was where I blew it. I confess I was so full of water and had started to feel lousy so I didn’t eat the rest of the day. In the evening I got extremely nauseous. I wanted to die! I tried to throw up but nothing would come up. I called the doctor and they recommended the other anti- nausea pill (a back-up) called Compazine and to get something in my stomach. I cannot even begin to express how awful it was to force oneself the eat feeling that rotten. Unfortunately, nothing helped. My poor husband and son sat on the other couch looking completely helpless and unhappy. Around midnight I finally asked my husband for another blessing begging for some relief. I immediately dosed off and when I woke up within that same hour the nausea was completely gone and I slept the whole night through.

When I woke up the next morning I still felt okay, just queasy because I was so hungry. This was where I learned my first important lesson with chemo. It’s a lot like morning sickness when one is pregnant. I learned I needed to keep something in the stomach all the time for the first five days after a treatment session. I started to carry food in my purse and in the car as a backup.

The next day it was back to the cancer center to get another injection. This is something new called Neulasta. It is a white blood cell booster that accelerates the making of white blood cells. I was told the side affect was feeling achy like a flu bug. I said as long as nausea was not involved, I would survive. They were right; I did have flu like symptoms and felt like I had been run over by a truck! I even went to bed at 7:00 that night and slept until 8:00 the next morning.

As an over all, I must say that once the nausea was gone, the first treatment was not as bad as I anticipated. I had some indigestion and was tired in the evening, but that was all. I felt completely like myself by the time the next treatment came around.