I am done with 2 of my 3 days of chemo this week and I'm feeling great. I was really surprised to find that I was a functional human being last night until Geoff sheepishly reminded me that it isn't until the weekend when everything goes out the window. He's right of course. It all came back to me very quickly.
I've had significantly less side pain since starting the chemo yesterday so I'm optimistic that it is already helping. I've had some nausea and fatigue, but so far I've been able to keep ahead of it all with the anti-nausea pharmacy I have in my house. I was really pleased when I got I received a prescription of 8 mg Zofran instead of the usual 4 mg yesterday. Now I have options. Of course, I already had a variety of options, so I shouldn't act like I didn't have options before.
I decided to take benadryl with my chemo yesterday and I'm proud to announce that I am back to my full-fledged light weight status. I made it a whole 40 minutes before I was out cold for the next few hours. When I did wake up it was because I had to go to the bathroom IMMEDIATELY, like yesterday. Then I fell right back to sleep and didn't wake up until I had to go to the bathroom "yesterday" again. In other words, I had a great nap.
Before falling asleep Geoff and I started watching Downton Abbey. It's been on our list of things to watch for awhile, so this was the perfect time to start. Of course we are both hooked now, so it's our new chemo date distraction. We watch and knit. We also ordered a lunch tray to share. It wasn't anyone's idea of a dream date, but it was pretty nice if you ask me. About as good as a chemo treatment can get...well, unless I make my own chemo music video...that would be fun too.
The 72 hour IV didn't even make it 5 minutes. My first IV was placed in what I would say is a more advanced spot on my left arm to make it less intrusive to my daily life. Unfortunately it blew nearly immediately. I had another placed when I finally got to chemo, but that one was pretty sucky too. It's funny because I am an amazingly easy poke. Just bad luck I guess, but not a big deal. Today I had a perfect little IV in my right hand and then had it removed as soon as I was done with it. Tomorrow I'll probably do the same.
When I had my first IV placed in lab yesterday they also took labs from it. Unfortunately not all of these labs processed properly so we ended up getting a delayed start by about 3 hours while the chemo treatment area waiting on said labs. In the end they needed to take a new sample.
Geoff and I passed the time in the waiting area knitting, talking to the people around us, and playing with the art therapy supplies. This week the project was to make "trading cards" or magnets. Think little greeting cards/magnets that you decorate with fancy papers, ribbons, stickers, stamps, drawings, whatever and trade with other people to cheer each other up. They were cute, fun, and a nice little distraction for the time being.
I also met my first fellow cervical cancer friend. She was very nice and fun to talk to. She has been through so much more than me and I left feeling a sense of awe at her strength. We traded numbers and emails and vowed to keep our eyes open for each other.
And that was my first chemo day in a nut shell. The crazy part began after we left. We realized it was about 4 hours later than we had expected and we had about an hour and half to pick both kids up from different places that are approximately 20 minutes away from each other (one by Geoff's work and one by our house), and the dogs (situated mostly in between). Of course it takes time at each place, so we barely made it with about 2 minutes to spare.
Then when we got home Geoff did a quick dinner with two very over-tired and fussy kids while I soaked in the tub. Just as I was finishing up one of our pastors called and asked if it would be ok to stop by. I spent some time talking with her downstairs while E had a full-fledged meltdown on Geoff. Geoff was very patient and helped E through it, but it was pretty epic. I think all the shuffling around of the last few days finally took it's toll on E. When I was done with our pastor I headed up to help out Geoff and I noticed Ella was a little fussy too. I randomly decided to take a quick peek in her ears. I really didn't expect to see anything, but sure enough bright red and pussy/wax. Geoff and Ella headed off to Urgent Care to find that Ella did indeed have a double ear infection. Meanwhile, I read stories to an overtired E and tucked him into bed. He was asleep about 10 seconds after I finished reading to him.
Tonight they are a little better, but I'm still fighting to get Ella to sleep. She is tired, but she is fussy and doesn't want to put her head down. Poor girl. Since I don't have her to sleep, I still don't have E tucked in so it feels a little like I'm failing. I know he won't be hard, once I finally get Ella down. It makes me appreciate how much nicer it is when both of us are home to help each other. Tonight is Geoff's first night teaching math at ITT Tech so we'll see how it all goes.
Meanwhile today was complicated with both kids once again being in different places and one of our dogs having a UTI and ear infection :(. We dropped her off at the vet before chemo, picked E up on our way home, then took him home for a nap, Geoff went back to work (normal job), and at 4:15 I got up from nap, picked up our pup and was supposed to meet Geoff to trade off Ella, but he made it all the way home before I could get out of the vet clinic. Hopefully next week will be easier in all respects.
Next chemo week, we are planning to have my mom come stay with us Tuesday-Thursday to make things flow better and not have as much craziness. We'll see how that goes.
My favorite part of the day was my chemo nurses. The main one I had is one that I've known from the beginning and the other one that came in to say hi was my first chemo nurse from way back last August. At that time she was pregnant and now she has a 3 mo bambino. It was so nice to see her, though it would have been better to see her at Target or something. They really made my day though. It always makes such a big difference when you get such personalized care. They remember us talking about our kids, and they remembered that I was in midwifery school, etc. etc.
I'm not so secretly hoping I get one of them tomorrow too. Regardless I can't believe round 1 is already almost done. It's been such a whirlwind. A week ago yesterday I had a biopsy and this Friday I am donating my hair. All of it. I think it will be ok, but I remember way back when I started this blog I wrote a post about potentially losing my hair and I found that I had more unresolved feelings about the idea of hair loss than I thought. I guess we'll have to wait and see, but I suspect I'll be tough because we are intentionally taking the kiddos with us so we can explain and not shock them. Then we have a few hours to snuggle and hold each other before Geoff flies out to CA for the weekend for his brother's wedding.
One more thing...I have to thank one of our friend's for saving our night with a delivery of Chipotle for me and the kids. Thank you, it really hit the spot! The particularly amazing part of this was that her night was insanely hectic and she wasn't able to cook what she planned and instead of asking to do another night (which would have worked just fine) she still brought us Chipotle from Madtown. Thank you Heather! xoxo
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