Recap - Red Poison Session 1

After getting the Mediport put in Tuesday I had a couple of days to recover. I went back to the wig store (a couple of weeks earlier I spent a good couple of hours confirming that I really don't look good as a blonde) to pick up the wig. I ended up getting two as the owner was willing to make a deal on the second wig (can we say bundling?). I now am the proud owner of two wigs that look pretty similar though one is human hair and the other synthetic and they are slightly different colors and two styrofoam heads. Is it a bad sign that I've named them and sometimes talk to them? We'll see if the hair makes the girl by tracking behavior based on if I am wearing the Jackie wig or the Kiki wig. It may just mean I need to get a pet or that it is a really good thing that I am heading back to work tomorrow.

The next day I picked up my friend Debbie from the airport. (She had taken a month off between jobs and had offered to spend the weekend of first chemo with me.) Apparently coming to chemo is like the gold ticket item - it is a barrel of laughs but if I get to have quality time with my friends that's a bonus. You can apply for this honor at change.gov --oh wait that's for other types of positions. We hung out - went to chemo orientation where I got to hear all of the possible side effects of chemo. On the positive side some of them were clearly incompatible but I left with a whole new set of thoughts about what a drag this was going to be. The nurse was terrific and I got to meet my case manager Dorothy who made some calls and got me a full complement of my super anti-nausea drug. On the way to chemo orientation we picked up my pills including the expensive drug developed explicitly for chemo patients to fight nausea. (All four pills are to fight nausea.) Of course the pharmacy filled the prescription and apparently my insurance covered only 1 of the expensive pills - I need 4 per treatment - and charged me $40 for the one pill. After Dorothy's intervention I had all 16 pills for the first four treatments - all for the $40 co-payment.

While getting the extra pills my battery died while stopped illegally in Dupont Circle ... in rush hour. I spoke to my friend Tracy who was nearby, had jumper cables because her battery had been acting up last month and who did some rock star maneuvering to come give us a jump. Shout outs also to Debbie who knew how to use the jumper cables and we jumped my car and headed back to my house for a pre-chemo party. Melissa joined us and after some Sparkling Shiraz I have said a dieu to liquor I think for the duration of chemo. Drinking something red and sparkly seemed appropriate given the red poison about to be put into my body.

Friday morning there was a trip to the mechanic new battery and oil change, breakfast nearby and then a trip to the grocery store and then chemo at 1:30. We expected to wait a while but we ended up in a chemo chair (a lazy boy recliner for me, and a less comfortable chair for Debbie) pretty fast. Besides the fact that I seem to have lost a half an inch, when my height and weight were taken everything moved along pretty quickly and wasn't so bad. They cleaned where the mediport was and the line was entered directly - it was a little odd feeling to have the injection into the port (and through my skin) but it was much easier than any IV. They first gave me a couple of anti-nausea drugs through the mediport and then the fun began. Apparently the bright red medicine needs to be pushed in slowly to make sure it isn't leaking. So nurse Erica was there with two really large syringes pushing the A slowly into the line. It took about 15 minutes, the other drug took about 30-40 minutes and somehow even though there wasn't much waiting around the whole chemo experience took until 5:30 - so 4 hours for chemo. It was an afternoon but wasn't painful or really even that uncomfortable.

The next few days I was low energy and spacey and a little queasy at points but in much better shape than I thought I would be. I ate small meals frequently, took my pills according to schedule and everything was okay. Sunday I was a little spacier and I don't think I should have been allowed to make any life changing decisions for much of the beginning of last week but generally was okay. Thursday night - about the time the first blog entry went up I actually felt pretty great and able to think again. And have felt good since. I'll give more details on postchemo life next time. Tomorrow I start work again so may be slower writing things up - but all in all chemo session 1 has seemed not really bad at all.