Chemo Day One

Phew. Well, the actual receiving-the-chemo part is a breeze. Comfortable chair, kind, caring, sassy, smart nurses and my companion for the day, JR who is one of the loveliest {and I’d be remiss not adding, most talented}, good-hearted and clear-on-the concept women on my block which teems with wonderful women. JR went through this same cancer 18 months back {and is doing swimmingly}, luckily her’s was caught a tad earlier which really is irrelevant, she is the perfect Fairly Cancer God-Mother for me. JR has two swell kids in college and right now, with my HS sophomore and all that looming, anyone who has successfully navigated the get-your-kid into college thing is a rockstar in my book.

I remember when Griffin was a toddler and I met people with big kids, you know, in kindergarten or first grade, I was in awe... wow, you figured out how to get your kid to kindergarten... what a feat, my kids are fearful and clingy when they’re very young, but no one and I mean no one would believe that about Griffin now and that little J-boy is holding his own. I’m happy to report, both boys are successful kindergarten graduates.

Chemo took about 5 hours, longer than I expected. They access the port and bag after bag of mystery fluid drips innocuously into your veins. The Chemo drugs I’m taking are Cytoxan and Adriamycin which google has informed me is made from soil fungus. How do people figure these things out? Cancer? Well, let’s try us some soil fungus.

TF who recently finished off her adventure with this potent cocktail calls Adriamycin the Red Devil. Yep, it’s bright red and what looks like two giant syringes {don’t worry, they poke into the tube, not the flesh} look like they’re filled with bright red jello. The nurse puts on her hazmat gear and pushes it in slowly because it’s like acid if you get it on your skin... hence the port, I’ve learned. Mmmm, tasty acid jello. It makes you pee bright red the next day too, it’s a good thing they warn you about that.

They also drip in massive amounts of nausea meds {a very good thing} and steroids which are also good for nausea and energy {fleeting as I learned too quickly}, and lots of fluids -- dehydration is bad, so it’s kind of a good thing that something is giving me dry mouth... i want nothing more than to drink water all day.

So I felt pretty good afterwards and took Jonah to piano at 4. His class is in my studio building, so I zipped over to couch it for 30 minutes {no delusion of getting any work done} and almost immediately crashed. It was all I could do to drag us home, get him some dinner and collapse on the couch.

Nauseous already, and with a growing headache I hit the supplemental meds early and right now I’m counting down until at least 9 a.m. to take another.

I don’t feel great, but I know I could feel a lot worse. Hoping not to, well see.