First Chemo Treatment

I survived!  Well, I actually more than survived-I feel great!  I was terrified leading up to it.  Tuesday night I had trouble sleeping thanks to little mister kicking my tissue expander again.  I was in so much pain that I was up half the night.  Then I had to rush in to see Dr. B before my pre-chemo appointment with the Nurse Practitioner at the oncologist.  Dr. B said I looked okay, and there was nothing to drain this time.  But I was in so much pain and so exhausted that I almost passed out while the techs were searching my arm for a vein to do the blood draw at the oncologist.  Then I threw up as I left the appointment.

I got a good night's sleep that night, and woke up ready to take this on.  The nurse was able to access my port easily, which was a huge sigh of relief after all the trouble it caused me.  The first time the nurses from the old oncologist's office tried to access it they couldn't get it, and left me in tears after jiggling the needle around in me.  Then they sent me back to the hospital, and the doctor determined it was just at a weird angle and had to be accessed at 30 degrees towards my head.  My oncologist said this was unacceptable since, at that time, I was slated for a year of Herceptin treatments.  So back I went to the hospital.  But the day before was the first fill of my tissue expanders, and I had felt the port shift.  It must have bumped it into place, because they were able to access it right away at the hospital.  So I didn't have to have another procedure to have it switched out after all!

Once I was hooked up, they started me off with some anti-nausea meds and a little Ativan to relax me.  Then the first drug, Cytoxan, took about 45 minutes.  After a flush of IV fluid, they pushed the second drug, Adriamycin, which only took about 10 minutes.  Another few minutes of flushing, and I was done.  The chair was super comfy and has it's own TV and even a massage and heat button!  I haven't been able to sit for four hours at a time in forever!

The next day I had to go back for a Neulasta shot, which helps your bone marrow make more white blood cells so that your numbers don't plummet.  Some people experience bad bone pain, but so far, I'm feeling okay.  I'm almost waiting for the ball to drop-I feel way too good! 

The only minor incident was a strange case of face spasms.  I looked like the Joker!  It was really scary and not fun at all.  We had to call the on-call doctor since it was Saturday, and they said it was a side effect of the steroid I was taking.  I had to stop taking it and take some Benedryl, which did the trick.

So that's one AC treatment down...three more to go.  I go back in two weeks for the next treatment.  Then I'll have four treatments of Taxol either every other week or 12 once a week, depending on how my body is handling everything.  Obviously, I'm voting for the 4 every other week so I can just be DONE!