Today was the starting mark of chemotherapy.... My first treatment session. So Im there ready and waiting at 10am in their waiting room watching the fish in the tanks. And eventually we all get called through to the treatment room, I can only imagine each time coming up here, that I may become a bit possessive about my chair now! I chose the corner area, nice and sunny at the time, overlooking the prison opposite! First up is the first of the anti sickness drugs to try to combat the inevitable nausea following the chemo drugs. They then warm your veins up with a mini electric blanket to try make them easily accessible for the canula to go in..... Easier said than done for my veins! First attempt in my hand failed, after a little bit of playing about, she gave up and tried further up in my wrist, success! More anti sickness drugs follow along with steroids! Always did want the manly voice and hairy chest!! So next up are the five different syringes of chemo drugs. The first two are cherryade colour called Epirubicin. Couple minutes into the first syringe, I have an almighty hot wave coming over my head and face, my neck goes dark red, blotchy and lumpy, and I have one hell of an urge to itch! In two minds whether it's just me being a bit paranoid that I must feel something with the drug so I shouldn't say something, or this can't be normal I shouldn't be itchy and hot! So I ended up saying to my nurse slowly injecting me, that Id come over all hot and itchy, her face was a picture of errrrrmmmmm right ok bear with!! Next hurdle for this whole journey, working out an allergic reaction that the chemo sister has only seen once before in 7 years!! So after lots of debate and conversations on the phone to pharmacy, they decided with me being allergic to antihistamine too that they'd give me a shot of hydrocortisone to counteract the reaction and see if it calmed down. Given twenty minutes, my neck had returned to normal, so they decided to give the syringe another go to see if the reaction was going to be held at bay now.... Couple minutes into it, it was pretty clear it wasn't! Red hot and itchy neck kind of decided that Epi was no good for me!! So next comes a long debate with pharmacy, oncology, Southampton.... To see what anyone suggests, I guess it's not a common reaction so they've no idea what to do! And it's decided to axe it for today and see if they can find a solution between now and my next round! The next two syringes were Fluorouracil, and the last one was Cyclophosphamide, thankfully all of these went in absolutely fine! So I got given a goodie bag, full of drugs; steroids, anti sickness tablets and another self injection for tomorrow, however I was quite proud that my bag wasn't the biggest bag handed out! That's got to be a good thing right?! And that's my first round done! Thanks to mumma bear who came up with me this morning wincing at the canula attempts, and Sarah who came and sat with me for the majority, laughing at the itchyness and wandering prisoners from Parkhurst! Headed out to lunch with Sarah, and then headed home. By the time I had reached home, I was very very nauseous, deciding the sick bucket was going to become my new buddy for the next few days! So I took up my place on the sofa onesie clad under a heated blanket and have remained there for the rest of the day. Fear of moving too far away from a bucket, monster of a headache and just a general overwhelming feeling of being completely and utterly steam-rollered is how my day has ended! Fun times ahead I feel!! One down.... Comments are closed.
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February 2017
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