12/10/2012:
Happy Birthday Jamie!
8:00: I wake up, the usual, let Buster out.
8:10: I jump in the shower.
8:20: I jump out the shower.
8:30: I put on my lidocaine cream on top of my port area so that I won’t feel the needle go in when they access the port. I put a peace of saran wrap over the cream to keep it from getting on my shirt and to allow most of it to absorb into my skin. I also pop the Ativan to calm me, and zone me out, not worrying about needles…
8:45: My mom and I are heading out the door.
9:00: We get to the Hospital, the Yenni Treatment Center to be more exact. I go upstairs and check in and wait in the waiting room.
9:15: Still waiting.
9:30: They come and take my blood pressure and temperature. Everything is fine!
9:45: Still waiting.
10:00: I am called to the other room, they send me to Bed 2, which is where I had my first chemo treatment at.
10:15: My laptop is setup, and everything is ready to go for me to get some work done. I take care of some business admin stuff such as paying bills, taxes etc.
10:30: The nurse comes and accesses my port. She can push saline into me, but she can’t get a blood return. She tries a few syringes of pushing saline, and then when that doesn’t work, she asks me to walk around some. I walk down the hall and back. She then tries again and she is able to get blood return back this time. Blood return is so important, because they want to make sure that they are pumping directly into a vein because if they can’t get blood back and they are pumping into tissue, the chemicals that they are about to administer to me can kill the tissue and even eat through my skin, so they need to make positively sure that the port is still in the vein by getting a blood return.
11:00: The hook up my saline bag, and start pumping my premeds Zofran and Decadron first…
11:20: My Zofran is done pumping, they hook up my Emend and pump that into me…
11:45: BLAH, it’s time for the Adriamycin. I get a nauseous feeling just thinking about the red stuff. I don’t look at the bag or the line, I don’t want to see it! The nurse brings me two popsicles to suck on. This helps minimize the flavor in my mouth if not block it completely.
12:15: They flush my line with some saline drip.
12:25: My Bleomucin is hooked up to the pump, and they start pumping that into me. At least that red stuff is done…
1:00: They flush my line with some more saline.
1:10: The nurse comes in with the big syringe. She hooks it up to my IV and pushes my Vinblastine by hand, nice and slow…
1:20: She is done with the syringe and then flushes me some more with saline.
1:25: Dacarbazine, the last of the 4 drugs is hooked up and started to be pumped into my system.
2:00: I am done with the final drug. The nurse let’s the saline flush the system.
2:10: The nurse takes my blood pressure and temperature.
2:20: The nurse pushes a syringe of some heparin into my port as usual to keep it from clotting and to keep it ready for the next use.
2:25: The needle/IV is pulled out and I a bandaid put on.
2:30: I stop by the bathroom by the elevators as always to get rid of some fluids from all that chemo pumped into my system.
2:35: My mom and I are walking out of the place. I am done. I am tired, I am going to go home and crash!!!
2:50: We get home.
3:00: I lay in my bed and I am out!!! ZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZz
8:00: I wake up, I get out of bed, I gotta go to the bathroom again and get rid of some fluids. I grab some drink, and then I go back in my room and turn on TV and just watch the TV.
8:45: I am feeling tired again. I doze off watching TV.
11:30: I wake up drink some more liquids, and then watch some more TV to I doze right back off.
11:59: Another chemo day over with, ZzZzZz, I am sleeping it off…
