May 31, '24 - Chemo Infusion #1 of 6
Support staff from Maryland came out to visit for this first infusion, just after the port install. It was great to have my older sister Karen with me while I purposely allowed this poison to traumatically effect my system. Between her and Laura and Alex’s shared dark sense of humor about the situation, levity could be found in this quite scary chapter in my life.
- PSA: 2.9!
- Support: Karen!
Day 0 of cycle : injection
Injection day was rather easy honestly. Though before the appointment I was rather nervous so I went and mowed the lawn. (This would be come my tradition on injection day).
Karen and I got to the hospital and got my port accessed and blood drawn for testing. Then we got a coffee and waited for the labs to be done and meds to be calculated.
The process of chemo was simply getting hooked up and drip running. Then they administered some steroids to help boost blood growth, before diving into the chemo. I did have a bit of woozy on the first day, but this was light and didn’t happen since.
Karen helped me trade out the ice packs I had to hold on my feet and hands to stave off the effects of neuropathy. This is because chemo attacks the quickest growing cells.. and your nerve endings are constantly getting updated to stay fresh and sensitive. The fact that I had ice packs mittened to my hands made it impossible to surf the net on my phone or read a book… so we chatted most of the time we were there… it was actually rather a nice change of pace. I enjoyed getting that time with her.
Returned home and went for a walk with Karen, then finished the edging and trimming of the lawn, just to be able to say I did that after chemo. :) Karen watched “Charlotte’s Web” with the kids, made them clean up toys, and helped get them ready for bed. Great job, Karen!
Day 1 of cycle
For the next 5 days I’d have to take a booster shot to encourage my bone marrow to produce more blood cells to replace the ones that would be decimated by the chemo. Taking this for the first time was a bit of a courage step, but I’d taken or given subcutaneous shots to others. First shot done…
Side note to this story is that my Aunt and Uncle literally dropped in to see us on a trip up to Alaska… with disastrous results. I’m not going to give any details, but it was still very nice to have them with us for the next few days.
Day 2 of cycle
Second shot… same as the first. Headaches… so drank tons of water and some Gatorade. I had some shivering and small pain at night, but figured this was the ‘worst’ night. Man was I wrong.
Day 3 of cycle
This is where we take a turn… it was Monday, so right after taking my booster shot I sat down to work at my desk. In about 10min started to feel a bit ‘off’ and even felt faint. So I took my blood pressure and found that it had fallen to the lowest levels I’ve ever seen it in my life. Fiona went and got me a graham cracker for sugar and this helped. Doc decided to reduce the shot dose for the next cycle, and for this one had me take it every other day.
I was rather tired at times and even had to take a multi-hour nap, so the effects were setting in.
Day 4 of cycle
No shot this day, but was still extremely tired. Had to take several naps.
Day 5 of cycle
Shot day, but it was uneventful this time. Was able to do a full day of work and take a long walk.
Day 6 of cycle
No shot, but so much for all that fun positivity… night was a doozy. I had so much bone pain in my hips and lower back I thought I needed to call an ambulance. At one point I’d gone right past crying and on to laughing about just how much pain there was, that was amazing. Luckily Fiona woke up to check on me and got some Ibuprofen… this calmed the pain down significantly enough that I finally was able to pass out asleep.
Day 7 of cycle
Bone pain continued into the afternoon, but NSAIDs seem to abate the issue. Worked full day, with an albeit needed nap.
Day 8 of cycle (final shot)
Took final shot and off to the Radiological Oncologist for a consult. Turns out he his the head of all the other teams for my care. Up till now, doctors and anything we read has been hesitant to say anything about death. This is the first doctor to say literally, “you don’t need to get your affairs in order. I expect you to be around for several decades.” Very odd up till now, but we were not sure. Chances of this illness and standard treatment put you/me at a chance of 80% being around in 10yrs. But, this oncologist has had prostate and lung cancer and beaten them both, thus I think he knew we needed to hear this information.
During the last minutes of his meeting, I started to get that familiar pain, so we exited and bought pain meds at the hospital pharmacy before heading home. I was fine by the time we arrived.
I had enough energy that while Fiona and kids went to the park, my neighbor and I started in on spackling the new hood in our kitchen.
Other things to mention
- Mom of our son’s friend made us very nice Mediterranean food to save us from cooking one night! Thank you!
- Even though I was exhausted most of the time… I pushed myself to exercise in different ways
- Long walks
- Painting the trailer bed
- Cutting up large tree falls
- Lawn maintenance
- being a dad of small kids