Chemo Days
This page is a collection of my Chemo Therapy Infusion Days posts. Rather than having to search for the individual Chemo Therapy Infusion posts, one can just come here for info on days about Chemo.
Chemo Day #11: ~~~~ 1 More to Go
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…
Chemo Day #10: ~~~~ 2 More to Go
11/26/2012:
12:00: Still gaming.
2:45: I am done my Call of Duty 2 for the night. I should sleep well till I have to wake up for my Chemo.
3:00: ZzZzZzZzZzZz
11:00: I am up, I let Buster out.
11:30: I jump in the shower. Do a clean shave on my head with the head blade.
11:55: I jump out the shower.
12:00: I find my medication and my lidicane gel.
12:15: I put the lidicane gel on my port, and then put the saran wrap over the area so that it can absorb into the skin and not absorb into my shirt.
12:30: I take my Ativan to chill me out and not worry about the drugs and needle etc.
12:45: My mom is off today and is bringing me to my Chemo treatment, we leave the house.
1:00: We get to the Yenni Center at EJGH. I get out the car while she parks and go upstairs to check in.
1:15: We are sitting in the waiting room upstairs.
1:30: Still waiting…
1:45: Still waiting…
1:50: I get my vitals taken. I have a 99.0 Temp. The nurse comes and asks me if I have been sick lately or taking anything for my temp. I tell them that I took a hot shower before coming in, and there has been a few times that I have had a very small temp before my chemo. As long as everything is normal she sees no problem with it.
2:15: We are taken to the other room, and I am put in chair 3.
2:20: I hook up my laptop to the wall, setup my headphones, and I am good to go…
2:45: They bring the paperwork for me to sign, consenting to the 4 drugs they are about to pump into me…
3:00: The nurse comes hooks up the bag of Zofran and the Decadron turns on the pump and let’s it go.
3:30: The nurse puts up my bag of emend and starts pumping that into me.
3:45: My dad gets here and my mom leaves to run errands before heading home.
4:55: YUCK, the red stuf, I can taste it just by seeing it… Adriamycin. I am not going to miss out on a Popsicle, the only way to disguise/mask/remove the taste! She brings me purple.
4:25: The Adriamycin finishes up.
4:30: They flush my line with more saline drip.
4:35: Bleomucin is hooked up to my line and pumped in….
4:55: Some saline to flush the line…
5:05: The nurse has the large syringe and hooks it up to my IV and pushes my Vinblastine.
5:15: She is done this push and let’s the saline flush the line for a little bit.
5:25: My next and final drug, Dacarbazine is hooked up. The nurse is commenting how how this bag looks like it is going to explode it is filled to the max, after talking to another nurse she turns on the pump starts pushing that into me.
5:50: That final drug is done being pushed. They flush out my line a little bit with the saline.
6:00: She takes off my patch that is holding the needle into my port, and then pulls the needle out. Thank goodness I don’t feel a thing.
6:10: We walk out of the room, as always I stop for my bathroom break by the elevator before heading out to the car. I gotta flush some of all those bags of liquids they just pumped into me.
6:15: Back in the elevator and downstairs we head. Into the CRV and on our way home.
6:30: We get home.
6:45: I don’t really feel like eating, but grab a small bite of something, half in half out of it.
7:00: ZzZzZzZz… I am sleeping goodnight cruel world…
11:00: I wake up, to the bathroom I go more fluids to empty…
11:10: Sleeping again.
11:59: Still sleeping….
Chemo Day #9: ~~~~ 3 More to Go
11/12/12:
11:00: I am awake. I let Buster out. My dad is home today, it’s a holiday for him, and it’s Veterans Day. Thanks to all those who are serving and have served our country.
11:45: I jump in the shower.
12:00: I jump out the shower.
12:10: I follow up with a phone call from a client, it has to be quick, I have chemo for 1.
12:35: I get off the phone, I will follow up more with the people in Denver, CO on the issues they are having, but they are about to upgrade their exchange server and some other things, so I will stop working on this until the servers have been upgraded.
12:45: I put on my Lidocane Cream on my port, so that I don’t feel the needle when they push it into my port.
12:50: My dad and I leave for the Yenni Center at EJGH.
1:00: We get there, head upstairs, and I check in, and we sit down.
1:05: I make a call to my oncologist to check to see if my dosage of Chemo has to go up since I have gained some weight since I have started. Sure enough, they want to ad 10% volume of chemicals to my chemo, but that will start next time.
1:10: I am sitting back in the waiting room with my dad.
1:20: The nurse comes and takes my temperature and my blood pressure.
1:35: The buzzer goes off letting me know to head to the outpatient infusion room. I go across the hall, put my buzzer in the basket and wait to be seated in one of the Lazy Boys. The nurse sits me in Chair 5.
1:50: The nurse accesses my port and start pumping the saline drip in.
2:05: The nurse comes back with the bag of Zofran and the Decadron hangs it and starts pumping that into me.
2:30: The nurse brings my bag of emend and starts pumping that into me.
2:50: Here comes the bag of the nasty red stuff, blah, Adriamycin, I could do without it, but my body needs it so suffer I must. I ask for a Popsicle, anything but RED! She brings me some orange.
3:15: The Adriamycin finishes up.
3:25: They flush my line with more saline drip.
3:35: She then hooks up the next drug Bleomucin.
4:00: That drug is done being pumped in, they flush my line with additional saline.
4:15: Another nurse comes in and pushes my Vinblastine out of the syringe.
4:25: She is done this push and let’s the saline flush the line for a little bit.
4:30: My next and final drug, Dacarbazine is hooked up and they start pushing that into me.
4:55: That final drug is done being pushed. They flush out my line a little bit with the saline.
5:00: She takes off my patch that is holding the needle into my port, and then pulls the needle out. Thank goodness I don’t feel a thing.
5:10: We walk out of the room, as always I stop for my bathroom break by the elevator before heading out to the car. I gotta flush some of all those bags of liquids they just pumped into me.
5:15: Back in the elevator and downstairs we head. This is the latest I have ever left the Yenni Treatment Center. It is a bit chilly, but not that bad, as we walk to the Accord.
5:30: We get home.
5:45: I eat some Chinese soup.
6:30: I lay in bed and fall asleep.
10:30: I wake up, use the bathroom, and go lay back down in bed. My legs feel heavy, and I am tired and weak.
10:45: I pull out my laptop briefly, but don’t stay on it too long.
11:15: The laptop is back on the nightstand, just watching TV.
11:59: ZzZzZz. I am out of it again… Another chemo done with.
Chemo Day #8: ~~~~ 4 More to Go
10/29/2012:
Possibly My Last Chemo, If My Pet Scan Results come back under 2’s next week! Then Radiation…
12:00: I am still playing my Call of Duty 2 game…
2:00: I quit playing for tonight.
2:05: I update my blog, prepping it for later today, another chemo day.
2:30: I head on off to bed!
7:40: I get a call from a client, they are getting a message that their dns server is down. I look at the list of computers and all of them at that office or offline. I tell the doctor that I will head over and check it our for him while he goes and visits patients in the hospital.
7:50: I jump in my van and leave my house.
8:00: I get to the office and log onto a computer. The server is up, just the t1 line is down causing the internet and the phones not to be working. I do some basic troubleshooting and then see the red alarm light in the T1. I attempt to call up at&t and they are of no help. I then, called the number listed on the phone for nuvox. Windstream answers the phone and explain the issue to the tech. They create a ticket and tell me it is setup with a critical status since both internet and phone are down.
I check a few things then get a call back from windstream. The want the status of the router, and I give them the status of the T1 too, 1 red light and 2 green lights. They have me restart the nuvox router. What do you know, it takes about 5 mins, but the data and the phones come back up online. I make a few test searches and everthing pulls up with no issues. I tell them the issue is resolved and they will leave the ticket open to the end of the day.
9:30: I am heading back home to my house, maybe ill get some rest in…. Yeah right.
9:45: I get a phone call or two on the office line when I get home and answer them. I then check on a few things on the computer.
10:00: I do some research on some packages that I am working on.
11:00: My wife wakes up and gets in the shower, however as she walked through the room, she asked me to make some of her green tea and condensed milk.
11:15: I take care of her tea while walking back and forth to my computer answering client emails.
11:45: I am done on the computer for now.
12:00: I start shaving my head. It’s not fun, since I havnt done it in a dew days.
12:10: I jump in the shower.
12:20: I jump out the shower.
12:30: I put on the lidocaine cream to deaden the skin around my port since not doing it really hurta.
12:35: My uncle frank calls me as I am finishing up. I ask him to give me 5. I finish up the cream, tell Buster to get in his cage which he does by walking over to it pawwing the door with his paw to open it up, gets in, and waits inside his treat. I lock him up, grab my laptop, keys, wallet, phone, and laptop and head out. I lock up and jump in Uncle Frank’s car.
12:40: He drives me over to EJGH.
12:50: I get dropped off and to my normal desk to checkin and they tell me to head upstairs as they moced the checkin location.
12:54: I checkin upstairs and have a seat.
1:00: They give me a pager that they will buzz when its my turn.
1:03: A nurse comes around and starts calling out names and takes their blood pressure and temperatures.
1:10: My stats are taken:118/85 Blood Pressure
1:48: I am still sitting here waiting for them to call my name or my pager to ring. I have dozed off enough once to drop my phone, but I have been in and out of it.
2:15: Still waiting in the waiting room…
2:30: Still waiting in the waiting room…
3:05: My name is called, and I am led into the back. Well what do you know, I get to be in Bed 2, the same place I was in when I started my first chemo.
3:15: She starts my needle, but has problems pulling blood back. I tell her that they had a problem with this the first time and used some cathflo to remove the blockage. My nurse today is going to try some heprin to see if that will clear the clot. If it does we’ll move on, if not, we’ll get some cathflo ordered to break up the clot and then move on.
3:30: She puts the heprin into me. We will wait 15 minutes, and then she will try to pull the blood back.
3:45: Another nurse comes in and tries to pull some blood back, which she is able to. She puts the saline drip in and let’s that start working into my system.
4:00: The nurse comes back with the bag of Zofran and the Decadron hangs it and starts pumping that into me.
4:05: My dad arrives, and has a seat. We talk for a little bit and watch NCIS as well.
4:20: The nurse brings my bag of emend and starts pumping that into me.
4:45: Here comes the bag of the nasty red stuff, blah, Adriamycin, I could do without it, but my body needs it so suffer I must. I ask for a Popsicle, either the orange or the purple, NOT THE RED! They bring me 2 packs, I pick the orange and my dad gets the purple.
5:00: I get my dad to grab me two purples out of the freezer, I don’t want the possibility of tasting the bad stuff at all, and the cold Popsicle help minimize if not completely hide the taste of this nasty tasting drug.
5:05: They flush my line with more saline drip.
5:15: They nurse wants to change up the order, I refer back to my blog and tell the nurse that they have always administered the drugs to me in a certain order, and I read her the order from my blog. She then hooks up the next drug Bleomucin in order of my blogging history.
5:40: That drug is done being pumped in, they flush my line with additional saline.
5:50: Another nurse comes in and pushes my Vinblastine out of the syringe.
5:57: She is done this push and let’s the saline flush the line for a little bit.
6:05: My next and final drug, Dacarbazine is hooked up and they start pushing that into me.
6:40: That final drug is done being pushed. They flush out my line a little bit with the saline.
6:50: She takes off my patch that is holding the needle into my port, and then pulls the needle out. Thank goodness I don’t feel a thing.
7:00: We walk out of the room, as always I stop for my bathroom break by the elevator before heading out to the car. I gotta flush some of all those bags of liquids they just pumped into me.
7:05: Back in the elevator and downstairs we head. This is the latest I have ever left the Yenni Treatment Center. It is a bit chilly, but not that bad, as we walk to the CRV, only about 5 cars in the parking lot too.
7:20: We get home. My mom asks me what I am up to eating. I don’t want anything that will blend in with the disgusting taste that I have in my mouth. Some nice strong Indian Food from Taj Mahal sounds appealing. I want the Lamb Tikka Masala, I love my Lamb.
7:30: I sit in the lazy boy and doze of fairly quickly.
8:45: The food is home. I dive right into my Lamb Tikka Masalla making 3 helpings of it by spreading it out with plenty of rice.
9:30: That was some great food! I enjoyed it! I sit with my wife while she eats her spinach dish.
10:00: I am laying in bed, and it doesn’t take long for me to doze off.
11:59: Still sleeping…..
Chemo Day #7: ~~~~ 5 More to Go
10/15/2012:
2:50 Today is my next chemo day. I was just catching up on my blog, but time for me to got o sleep, I’ll update ya’ll on the events of another round of chemo when I wake up 🙂 Night!
8:49: I am waken up by a phone call from a client. Their monitor is not working. I ask them to unplug the power from the monitor and plug it back in. They do that and the monitor comes back on. They then have an issue with windows. The computer is in startup repair mode saying that it did not boot properly. I tell her to click cancel. She does and then gets tired of waiting and wants to just power off the computer and turn it back on. I tell her this could make the computer be worse off, she should just let it finish on its own. She doesn’t want to wait, so I tell het she can just power it down by holding yhr power button for 10 seconds and turn it back on and hopefully it comes back up with no issues. Luckily it does come back up
without any problems and she is able to log back in.
9:10: I lay in bed trying to doze back off.
9:30: My phones google talk goes off and it is my business partner trying to setup his new emails on the new domain we purchased. He is having issues setting it up. I had issues the previous day and now decided I should turn on SSL on the server. I remote into the server, edit the configuration file, and then restart the smtp protocol. I then set it up on my phone with the new settings to test it out and it works. I test it out on a second app and it works too with just a minor alteration in the settings. I take some screen shots of the setup and text them to him.
10:00: I am up, there is no going back to sleep now. I let Buster outside and sit in the lazy boy while I continue to google talk with Jamie.
10:10: I let Buster back in while still sitting in the lazy boy start answering emails that come in, and send out emails checking on the status of the new computers that I installed last week.
10:45: I start getting everything together to get my shower along with what I need to prepare for my chemo treatment.
11:10: I shave my face and my head. I can’t wait to use my real razor again and just do it all at once in the shower withess cleanup, but this electric razor ain’t that bad.
11:20: I am done shaving, and pick up my phone to answer a few more emails.
11:40: I jump in the shower.
11:50: I jump out the shower.
12:00: I fix myself something to eat, a pumpkin spice doughnut and an apple filled doughnut.
12:15: I put on my lidocaine cream over the spot of my port and out some saran wrap on top of the cream and put my shirt on.
12:25: I take my ativan pill.
12:30: I brush my teeth, and my uncle Frank is knocking at the door. I go answer it and then go back and wash my mouth out with some ACT mouthwash without alcohol so I don’t dry my mouth out. I then out Buster in his cage and head out the door and lock up.
12:35: I jump in Uncle Frank’s truck.
12:45: We get to the Yenni Treatment Center. I go inside and checkin.
12:50: I am upstairs waiting in the waiting room.
1:07: I am called from the waiting room to the infusion room, and sit and wait in a waiting chair.
1:15: They take my vitals 123/84 blood pressure.
1:20: I am sitting in my chair.
1:40: They stick me, ouch, that hurt! Oh the pain I could do without. The mental side is starting to take over and having that nausea feeling and just feeling weak, blah.
2:00: They hook up my premeds and start pumping them into me. Not fun…
2:45: My mom shows up, and talks to me for a little bit then hangs around.
3:00: The Adriamycin is starting to be pumped into me. Blah…
3:20: They flush the line.
3:10: They hook up my Bleomucin and start pumping that into me.
3:30: My dad shows up, and my mom heads home.
3:40: They flush the line.
3:55: They push the Vinblastine out of the syringe.
4:05: They flush the line.
4:15: They hook up my Dacarbazine and start pumping that into me.
4:50: The Dacarbazine is done, they are now just flushing me with saline.
5:20: They turn off the pump, and unhook me, and then take the adhesive bandage off that is holding the need in my port, and then pull it out.
5:25: I make my appointment for 2 weeks at 1PM for my next infusion.
5:30: My dad and I head on home.
5:45: We get home.
5:50: I eat a grilled chicken wrap from Wendy’s and a grilled chicken sandwich from Wendy’s.
6:30: I am laying in bed, and crash hard.
11:00: I wake up, get out of bed to go to the bathroom to get rid of all those fluids pumped into me. I am very weak, my legs are heavy and I am just tired. I let Buster out, and then we both go back to bed.
11:59: ZzZzZz. I am sleeping again. I am out of it.
Chemo Day #6: ~~~~ 6 More to Go
10/01/2012:
9:45: I get a call from a client who is partnering with another client of mine to open up another restaurant. He would like to go over a few things with me along with some quotes and prices for things needing to be done at the new location that is in the works. I tell him that I am about to go do Chemo Therapy, so my earliest available would be Friday. We schedule our appointment for Friday at 10 AM.
10:00: I get up and I take Buster outside. I then check on a few things online. I get an voicemail from a client who’s computer is froze. It froze up last night when i was trying to fix iTunes and it showed that was still on his computer, he just wanted to make sure that he was not kicking me off if I was working on it. I told him that he could restart it and that it had frozen up last night. He sent me back an email to see if there is anything else that we can do to speed up his slowness. I tell him that he has one of the oldest computers out the group, and that his computer and the receptionist computers are both due to be upgraded before the end of the year or before the summer of 12013.
10:15: I follow up with another client who wants a website created for her business. She has some hosting right now but it seems like it is just an hosted exchange server.
11:30: I get together Buster’s food and feed him his half a can.
12:00: I shave my face and head.
12:10: I jump in the shower.
12:20: I jump out the shower.
12:25: I put on the lidocane cream on my port and put saran wrap on top of it.
12:30: My Uncle Frank picks me up from the house.
12:50: My Uncle Frank drops me off at EJGH at the Yenni Treatment Center.
1:00: I check in, and am sent upstairs.
1:10: They come get me out of the waiting room across the hall.
1:20: I am sitting in chair 5.
1:30: They stick the needle into my port. I am now just waiting for my meds and chemo.
2:30: They hang my emend bag and start pumping that into me. This is for anti nausea.
3:01: The Zofran and the Decadron beg is hung and starting to be pumped into me.
3:25: The Adriamycin is starting to be pumped into me. See the nice red color 
3:40: They want to flush the Adriamycin so they hook the saline drip back up.
3:50: They hook up my Bleomucin and start pumping that into me.
4:17: They push the Vinblastine out of the syringe.
4:20: They hook up my Dacarbazine and start pumping that into me.
5:00: The Dacarbazine is done, they are now just flushing me with saline.
5:45: The nurse I have usually works in the inpatient oncology department on the 5th floor of the hospital, and she lets the saline really flush me.
5:55: The pull out the needle and put a piece of tape over me.
6:00: I am packing up my laptop, and we are heading out of here! I am riding home with my dad.
6:30: We get home.
6:40: I eat some white beans that we have left over.
7:00: I am in bed dozing off.
11:00: I wake up, a little out of it, I get up, let Buster outside and go to the bathroom myself to get rid of some of those fluids that they have been pumping me full with all day.
11:59: I am dozing back off to sleep!
Chemo Day #5: ~~~~ 7 More to Go
09/17/2012:
12:15: My dad and I get home from uptown.
12:30: I am in bed and nod off.
8:20: I get a phone call from the client whos location I was at last night.
8:30: After some basic troubleshooting, I decide it best to head to the client’s location while the client calls AT&T.
9:00: I arrive on site. What do you know the phone lines are working again. The client tells me that AT&T was having some issues with the system, and they fixed it on their end. I check out a few things and everything is fine on the client’s end.
9:35: I head on back home to catch up some more sleep before I have chemo.
10:00: I get home and doze back off.
11:00: My wife wakes up to head to work, and I am still dozing.
12:00: I get up and get ready to get a shower.
12:15: I jump in the shower.
12:30: I jump out the shower.
12:45: I put on the lidocane numbing cream on my port, and cover it with saran wrap.
1:00: My Uncle Frank picks me up.
1:15: My Uncle Frank drops me off at the Yenni Treatment Center @ East Jefferson General Hospital.
1:20: I check in at the front desk and they send me upstairs to wait in the waiting room.
1:45: The call me into the room, and sit me in chair 1.
2:00: They have me sign my consent on the four pages, one for each drug they will be pumping into me.
2:10: They stick the needle into me, and start a saline drip.
2:25: They hang my emend bag and start pumping that into me. This is for anti nausea.
3:01: The Zofran and the Decadron beg is hung and starting to be pumped into me.
3:25: The Adriamycin is starting to be pumped into me. See the nice red color
3:40: They want to flush the Adriamycin so they hook the saline drip back up. However there is a 1 foot gap of air in the line, so i hit the stop button on the IV pump. The alarm comes off, they ask what’s going on, and I tell them. They pump up to a certain part and then pull out the air from the line with a syringe hooked to the line and then continue pumping
3:50: They hook up my Bleomucin and start pumping that into me.
4:17: They push the Vinblastine out of the syringe.
4:20: They hook up my Dacarbazine and start pumping that into me.
5:00: The Dacarbazine is done, they are now just flushing me with saline.
5:07: The pull out the needle and put a piece of tape over me.
5:15: I am packing up my laptop, and we are heading out of here! I am riding home with my dad.
5:45: We get home.
6:00: I am in bed sleeping!
10:00: I wake up. I am starving, all I had to eat all day was 10 chicken nuggets. I eat a few big macs and some shrimp etoufee.
11:45: I have a few final sips of some cherry 7up before bed, can’t drink or eat anything after midnight since I have my pet scan tomorrow!
11:59: Another chemo day done with, blah…
Chemo Day #4: ~~~~ 8 More to Go
09/04/2012:
2:30: I give up on finishing up the phone firmware tonight. I get the spare phone and a phone not being used yet and put them in place of the phones that are stuck trying to upgrade their firmware.
3:00: I get home.
3:15: I continue working on the phones. When I get home, I hate not finishing something once I have started. I get the firmware’s loading and go to bed.
8:00: A client calls me about a duplicate ip address. They attempt a repair and still get the same issue. I remove all dhcp clients on the server and restart the dhcp server, I restart the router and the switch. That still does not resolve the issue. Someone has that IP. I just go ahead and reserve the mac address to have an ip that is not int he range, and that resolves the issue. I doze back off to slee.
11:30: I get out of bed. I got Chemo @ 1.
12:00: I jump in the shower.
12:15: I jump out the shower.
12:30: I put on the lidocane cream on the port and cover it with saran wrap so that it is numbed up by the time they stick me.
12:40: My dad and head out over to the Yenni Treatment Center.
12:50: We arrive at the Yenni Treatment Center.
12:53: I check in, and head on upstairs to the waiting room.
1:05: They come get us out the waiting room, 3 of us. They call out our assignments and we go to our chairs/rooms.
1:10: The nurse takes my temperature and blood pressure. 98.6 and 125/83.
1:20: I plug in my laptop power cord behind the chair, power it on and get ready to broadcast another day at the treatment center.
1:40: The needle is in, let’s get this party started. I have just a saline drip flowing at 20L/hr.
1:56: This day is caught up. Just waiting for the anti nausea medicines.
2:30: I sign the consent forms.
2:40: The Zofran and another medicine is started to be dripped into me.
3:07: I get my first beeping on my pump, the Zofran is done.
3:25: They take my temperature and blood pressure again. 99.0 and 117/82.
3:27: The emen starts to get pumped into me!
4:05: They put in my Adriamycin.
4:25: My Adriaymcin is done.
4:40: They start my next drug bleomycin.
5:00: My bleomycin is done.
5:10: The nurse pushes the syringe of vinblastine into me.
5:13: The vinblastine is all in me.
5:15: They start pushing the dacarbazine.
I am just tired, hot, and out of it… I am good though, just loopy!
6:15: They finish the dacarbazine, and I am done. The nurse pushes some saline to clear the line an heparin to keep the line from clotting.
6:20: Time to pack up and head on out!
6:40: We get home. My mom has picked up some Pizza’s from Whole Foods. As always food is good!
7:30: I am laying in bed, on my computer, tired, and I finally doze off to sleep.
11:30: I wake up, get up get some drink, and do a few things, then go lay back in bed.
11:59: Still laying in bed, but another day done…
Chemo Day #3: ~~~~ 9 More to Go
08/20/2012:
11:00: I am up, my wife needs to be at school for noon. I got my chemo scheduled for 1:00. I let buster out.
12:00: I start getting ready to leave.
12:30: I eat some cheerios.
12:40: I put on my lidocane cream and put my syran wrap over to keep it from evaporating and so that it can be absorbed by the skin.
12:50: My sister is driving me and we leave the house and drive over to the East Jefferson General Hospital Yenni Treatment Center.
1:05: We arrive. I go in downstairs and check in.
1:10: I am upstairs in the waiting room waiting to be called into the infusion room.
1:27: I am taken out of the waiting room.
1:30: I take a seat in Chair 7.
1:31: They take my temperature which is 99.0, and my blood pressure which is 131/89. Just sitting here waiting for them to hook me up and pump me up…
1:50: I sign the 4n consent forms for the 4 Chemo drugs they are going to pump into me.
2:15: They are going to access my port and hook up the needle.
2:25: They are done, the needle is in me, I didn’t feel a thing, that lidocane cream worked like a charm. Now I just gotta wait for my saline drip to be hooked up…
2:32: They hook me up to my saline drip…
2:50: They start my premeds, the zofran and another drug.
3:00: My mother shows up, and relieves my sister, my sister is off, thanks sis!
3:20: They start my emend drugs.
4:00: The Adriamycin is starting to be pumped into me. See the nice red color The nurse gives 2 Popsicles to keep the nasty taste of the drug out of my mouth.
4:15: The Adriamycin is done. They turn on the pump to flush saline for 5 minutes.
4:20: They hook up my Bleomucin and start pumping that into me.
4:25: My dad gets here, and we let my mom go home and rest.
4:35: The Bleomucin is done, time for the next drug.
4:40: They push the Vinblastine out of the syringe. This time the nurse takes her time. Last time I think it was pushed a little fast, and I could feel some pain during the push, this time no pain, the push went perfect.
4:50: They hook up my Dacarbazine and start pumping that into me.
5:30: The Dacarbazine is done, now they are just flushing the line with saline.
5:46: They take my blood pressure 115/73, and my temp is 98.7.
5:47: The turn off the pump. Flush my line, and pull the needle out. I am good to go.
5:55: Packing up my laptop and shutting down, see you when I get home…
6:00: I am up out of the chair, and walking with my dad down to the car.
6:10: We are in the car, and heading home.
6:25: We arrive home. I turn on the oven to 400. I decided that I wanted some mozzarella sticks for supper. Not fried this time, just baked.
6:40: The mozzarella sticks are out of the oven.
6:50: I eat some mozzarella sticks with my mom and dad. I put off my second round to my wife gets home from school.
7:20: My wife gets home and we eat.
7:40: I help my wife with a thing or two on the computer.
8:00: I am laying back in bed. For some reason I just feel tired! Could be this additional chemo treatment, IDK…
8:30: I am knocked out, sleeping.
11:30: I wake up, I take buster out, and visit the bathroom myself. I am still tired/weak, so I lay back in bed.
Chemo Day #2: ~~~~ 10 More to Go
08/06/2012:
10:20: I am awake.
10:30: Still laying in bed, but following up with emails on my phone.
10:45: I am up out of bed and take Buster out.
10:50: I get a phone call from a client verifying some information.
11:10: Picking out my clothes for today.
11:20: About to jump in the shower.
11:30: Shaved my head and face.
11:45: I jump into the shower.
11:52: I am out of the shower.
12:00: I am dressed and ready to go. Just need to get my laptop and liquids.
12:10: My sister and I are leaving the house heading to the office to pick up a server and toner for a doctor at EJGH.
12:17: We get to my office and I go upstairs and get the toner and server and bring it down on a hand truck and then bring the hand truck back upstairs.
12:25: We are leaving my office.
12:35: We get to the doctor’s office. I hook up the server and there is an issue starting it. I open it reseat a cable and then the server starts up with no issues. They just need it to run a few last reports as this is an older server that is being removed in less than a month.
12:50: We are heading over to the Yenni Treatment Center.
12:57: We park.
1:00: I check in at the front desk and sent upstairs.
1:05: I am seated in a chair by the front desk upstairs waiting to be shown to a chair or bed.
1:20: I am shown to a bed and now sitting here waiting for my vitals to be taken.
1:30: I am just quickly updating the blog about to start the ustream video.
1:40: They take my vitals. 122/87 for my blood pressure and 99.0 for my temperature.
2:05: The nurse comes in and has me sign my consents for the 4 Chemo Drugs they are going to pump into me today.
2:10: Time to access the port 😛
2:15: The port has been accessed. I didn’t feel a thing. Thank goodness for the lidocane cream. They stuck me with the needle into the port and I didn’t feel a thing! They start the saline fluid drip.
2:20: My wife arrives.
2:31: They hang my emend bag and start pumping that into me. This is for anti nausea.
3:01: The Zofran and the Decadron beg is hung and starting to be pumped into me.
3:25: The Adriamycin is starting to be pumped into me. See the nice red color 😛
3:40: They want to flush the Adriamycin so they hook the saline drip back up. However there is a 1 foot gap of air in the line, so i hit the stop button on the IV pump. The alarm comes off, they ask what’s going on, and I tell them. They pump up to a certain part and then pull out the air from the line with a syringe hooked to the line and then continue pumping
3:50: They hook up my Bleomucin and start pumping that into me.
4:17: They push the Vinblastine out of the syringe.
4:20: They hook up my Dacarbazine and start pumping that into me.
4:25: I am eating some fries from Wendy’s with no salt. My wife is also providing me with Nabisco Graham crackers and Apple Juice and Crangrape Juice provided by the center. Good stuff, simple, and bland, hard to get sick off of this.
5:00: The Dacarbazine is done, they are now just flushing me with saline They take my vitals. 122/79 for my blood pressure and 98.6 for my temperature.
5:07: The pull out the needle and put a piece of tape over me.
5:15: I am packing up my laptop, and we are heading out of here! I am riding home with my dad.
5:30: We get home. I feel the side effects of the Ativan kicking in good now. A little woozy with a little bit of a whatever I don’t care attitude. Great for days of getting Chemo and not really worrying about what they are doing to you or thinking too much about it.
5:45: I am sitting in my Lazy-Boy with my Dell Mini. Updating the blog, checking emails and just a few things in between. Feeling a little bit out of it, but I am still good to go.
6:15: This fighting with being out of it is not working. I am getting tired and can’t even talk. Time for me to take a nap. I put my laptop down and doze off.
9:00: I wake up, that was a nice nap. I pick up my laptop and continue to work on what I was working on.
10:30: My mom warms me up some corn and chicken chowder soup.
10:40: I finish that and ask my dad to put together some chicken noodle soup for me.
11:00: I catchup my blog for tonight.
My First Chemo ~~~~ Chemo Day #1: ~~~~ 11 More to Go
07/23/2012
7:35: I wake up. Check the time but don’t want to get up just yet. I doze back off.
8:00: I wake up again, this time, time to get out the bed. My appointment is at 9:00. I wake up my wife, take Buster out, and page Debbie Schmitz.
8:04: Debbie calls me right back. She explains to me the whole process I will be going through today and she tells me she will meet me in the waiting room when I get there.
8:07: I get ready to leave the house for chemo.
8:45: We leave the house. My wife is driving me today.
8:55: We arrive at the Yenni center and I checkin . The girl checking me in was my sister Katie’s class and recognized me.
9:00: We are upstairs in the oncology waiting room.
9:07: My buzzer they gave me goes off, and I ask a nurse and they direct me into the infusion room.
9:10: I am getting my vitals taken.
9:15: I am led to the media room to watch an intro video on the chemo treatment, side affects, nutrition, etc. Debbie Schmitz also comes and give a presentation and goes through the entire oncology binder that is for me to keep and take home and refer to as needed. During the video, my wife puts on the lidocaine cream onto my port area and covers it with serran wrap. I start to eat a sandwich bag of cheerios to have some whole grain fiber in my stomach before my therapy. At this time I also swallow an antianxiety pill just to play it safe, I don’t want to feel weak at anytime during treatment from anxiety. We then finish watching the videos.
10:10: We are done with the videos and report back to the oncology infusion center.
10:15: They direct me to room 1, bed 2 for my infusion. I believe I am in a bed for this round because they will be throwing test amounts of drugs at me to see if I have a bad reaction to them. If I have a bad reaction, then they will have to make arrangements for a replacement drug.
10:25: The nurse comes in and accesses my port and tapes down the port. He flushes it with no problems. He has issues pulling blood back on it, but flushing and pushing liquids through the port is not a problem.
10:42: I am just sitting around in the room waiting for additional directions/drugs.
The Test Dosage
11:05: The nurse comes back in and flushed the line some more saline flush and prepares me for the test dose of Bleomycin He hooks up the IV and stats the saline drip.
11:10: I am started the test dose of Bleomycin into my IV Line to see if I have any reactions to it. We will flush this for 30 minutes before the next step is taken.
11:17: The nurse gives me a handout with the side effects of the Bleomycin. The worst thing that can happen is long term lung problems hence causing breathing problems. I should tell him if any of the following side effects happen while I am laying in the bed or my doctor if any of the side effects happen later. Those side effects are if I am feeling dizzy, not thinking clearly, have fever, chills, or wheezing.
11:20: Just sitting here waiting for my 30 minutes to be up, and for more drugs…
11:40: My alarm goes off on my SignsSpectrum IV Dripper/Regulartor Device. The nurse comes in ad ask if I have a rash anywhere, if I have any problems breathing, chills, wheezing, etc. I say I am fine. He says good. So I ask him whats the next step. He says its time for him to order my round of drugs and get my antinausea medicine, and other pretreatment drugs to feed into my line.
Pre Meds
11:50: The Premeds – Zofran and another drug that I will find out.
12:35: Emend – Anti nausea Medicine, this will last for 30 mins.
1:12: The premeds are done flowing, now just back to the saline drip.
ABVD Time
ABVD is a chemotherapy regimen used in the first-line treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma, supplanting the older MOPP protocol. It consists of concurrent treatment with the chemotherapy drugs:
- Adriamycin (doxorubicin/Hydroxydaunorubicin, the H in CHOP)
- bleomycin
- vinblastine
- dacarbazine (similar to Procarbazine, the P in MOPP)
1:17: First up Bleomycin. 10 minutes – 23 units, same dosage as the one test dosage, just more units.
1:24: I am just sitting here, not feeling anything special with this infusion just yet.
1:28: The alarm starts going off for my Bleomycin being done, a nurse comes in and sets the device to push more because there is still left hanging in the IV bag.
1:30: My wife goes and gets me a chicken salad sandwich from the fridge in the infusion center. I open up the tray, take a taste, and it tastes weird. Also my Gatorade tastes weird too. My wife says it taste like chicken salad, but that’s probably the chemo drugs taking over the taste side effects.
1:40: The alarm starts going off, the nurse comes in and checks it. Bleomycin is done…
Next up is Adriamycin, the red stuff.
1:50: The changing of the guards, I get a new nurse to start the Adriamycin. The nurse comes in needing to pull some blood from the port to ensure that the catheter is in the vein before pushing the Adriamycin. The Adriamycin can cause burning to surrounding tissue and skin if not delivered directly into a vein, therefore it must be verified that the catheter from my port it is in the vein before pushing the drug.
2:10: The nurse tried flushing the port with 2 more syringes of saline, even trying the pumping effect that the nurse achieved to get blood flow back on Friday, but she can still not pull back any blood.
2:45: The nurse came back and put some Cathflo into my line and port.
2:50: My mom gets here just doing of her job of being a mom, and worrying and making sure she is there for everything. It’s her mom job that never stops.
2:55: Debbie Schmitz gets there and distracts my mom for a little bit giving her a full tour of the infusion room and kitchen area.
3:15: The Cathflo flushed out the port and the nurse was able to draw back blood, therefore everything is good to go and ready to start the Adriamycin.
3:23: The Adriamycin is hooked up and started. I should take the entire bag into me in 10 minutes. Just pumping into me with no 
problems… That is crazy look at how red this stuff flowing into me is. Bright red. It will make me sweat red, cry red, and even, yep, you right, pee red.
Crazy stuff, but cool stuff, Ill post another pic!
3:40: Adriamycin is all done, they pushed it at 774mL/hr. They they push the the saline to clear the line out for 5 minutes at 774mL/hr. Plenty of cold fluid.
3:51: The vinblastine is now being pushed into to me. Its in a syringe, hooked up to the IV line and pushed in by the nurse. She takes 2 minutes to push in this syringe of drugs.
4:03: Here comes the Dacarbazine! YAY! Last one! 30 minutes of this stuff, and then its time for me to go home.
4:13: My dad gets here, yay, now its its a party!
4:17: My wife shows my dad and my mom the video room for them to watch the chemo intro video.
4:30: They still pumping me with the Decarbazine. Not a problem here. Just keep pushing these drugs into me, make me get better. We’ll see how bad/good the rest of the week is, but me just sitting here right now, is no problem whatsoever for me 🙂 Kill The Cancer 😛
4:33: The Decarbazine is done with. Now flushing me with saline again at 500 mL/hr.
Bad side affect today? None so far. I have been hot. I had night sweats all last night, and some warmness, almost sweating the whole time I am here today, nothing drastic or sweating here during treatment but definitely a warm feeling, but I check in with my temp at 98.7.
4:44: The alarm goes off for my saline flush, and another nurse comes and turns the pump back on.
4:50: The pump alarm sounds again, and the nurse that just turned it on for 5 minutes comes back in and changes my saline drip to 100 mL/hr.
4:58: The same nurse comes back in with the cart. She asks me a few questions about the next time I am doing blood work and the next time that I am coming in for Chemo. I told her that the doctor told me that I would have blood work done the Thursday before my next chemo.
5:07: The port is flushed with a syringe of saline to flush out any of the 
remaining fluid/chemicals in the port/catheter. Then a 1/3 of a syringe of heparin is pushed in to prevent the port and catheter from clotting, the type of clotting that we saw today where they were unable to pull any blood back and had to use the cathflo to break up the clot that was preventing the back flow of blood. The silicone covering on top of the port prevents anything from leaking out of the port and seals back after the needle is removed. This is the purpose of only using a non coring needle. 
A coring needle would take out a portion of the silicone dome which would not allow the silicone dome to seal properly upon needle removal, therefore the type of needle to used to access the port is known as a huber needle. The huber needle is bent in a way that the opening of the needle does not slice out a section of the silicone hub. It goes in on such an angle that the silicone is sliced with a very small pinhead then 
stretched around the rest of the needle, only coming in parallel contact with the needle hole therefore never destroying the way the silicone hub is made to close back up around the needle when removed. However, great care must be taken that the needle is not moved back and forth while in the port as this could stretch/tear the silicone hub. Also it is important not to spin the huber needle at any time. The reasons for this is that if the wrong part of the needle is in silicone section, then it could stretch/tear on the bend, or it could core out a section of silicone if needle opening is even with the silicone section at the time of spinning. Therefore it is strict regulation to just push the needle in and remove the needle out and not to move the needle in any other direction and to secure the needle with a clear adhesive circular patch to hold the huber needle in place. Ok, Ok, 
enough about the huber needle and the port and it’s silicone hub, I just thought one may like a brief educational update. My line is taken out and I am discharged from the Yenni Treatment Center. I am heading home.
5:20: I am headed out of the Yenni Treatment Center. Catch you when I get home.
5:45: We arrive home. My dad drove me home because he has the larger SUV. My wife gets home right after us.
6:15: My mom gets home with some Kentucky Grilled Chicken. Time to eat! Yummy…
6:50: We are done eating, I go to the bathroom where I can close the door and take off the bandage in peace and in front of a big mirror. This bandage is located on top of my port to prevent the skin from bleeding after they removed the needle. I also need to be careful taking off the bandage because the nurse taped the tape on top of the sterri strips, and I don’t feel like ripping those off today.
7:30: I am in my bed, and quickly fall asleep.
I wake up sweating, but turn over and go back to sleep.
10:30: I wake up again in a sweat, I get out of bed and take another trip to the bathroom after all those fluids all day and drinking water and Gatorade all day.
10:55: My dad leaves for his weekly 11PM – Midnight Monday night adoration at church.
I then watch some TV with my sister, Sarah. I want some different flavored Gatorade, so I ask my sister while she is up in the kitchen to see if there are any other flavors. She says there is none, but asks which ones I usually like. I tell her orange, yellow, and red. She says she will go off to CVS and return with some. I tell her not to worry about it, I will just continue to drink the blue that we have for now, she says its ok, and runs out to get some. She returns with 6, 3.78 gallon bottles of Gatorade. 2 Orange, 2 Red, and 1 Yellow. I have her mix half water and half orange to get me the electrolytes and other benefits of Gatorade with the extra water I need to drink to flush the chemo from my system and to keep my mouth moist and to prevent it from drying up.
Overall today went smooth! I know the anti anxiety medicine helped me out greatly. Usually I would not be able to watch the nurse insert needle into my skin, watching them pump the saline flush in and out, and try to aspirate blood from my port with no luck without feeling sick, first time at Dr. Veith’s office. I felt a little sick before my bone marrow biopsy when that nurse was pumping the saline flush in and out trying to get no luck, then taking a break and trying once again with a little more force, and then was able to start pumping with some blood flow then flushing harder for better blood flow by aspiration. I noticed it odd, but after taking the anti anxiety medicine I was able to just sit back and watch the chemo chemicals be pumped into to me. I was able to watch 2 nurses try the pumping effect to flush the line so they could get blood pulling back by aspiration. They were able to push and flush fluids, but they could not pull/aspirate blood from the line. After the Cathflo, she was able to aspirate a half a needle of blood. Funny enough I can’t watch them pull blood from me, nevertheless when I am giving blood for blood tests, or if they are pulling it back through an IV for blood work. I can’t see my blood in any form with a needle in me without me feeling bad and woozy and just slipping to the floor. I have found out that smelling salts do not work on me after seeing a bloody cyst removed from my back right after graduating high school. So yes, i want to say the anti anxiety medicine sure did help me today, and I am planning on using it for every upcoming treatment to put me at ease and help me through the situation. I am sure it helped me accept the fact and have no worrying issue about the chemo chemicals/drugs they were putting into me today either.
