Thursday, September 30th, 2010
Oh joy...not....
Day started at hospital at 8:30. I had already taken some steroid prescription pills 12 hours and 6 hours before. Plus I had to take an anti nausea pill that morning. More nausea pills for home. They work well. No nausea yet. (fingers crossed)
Hooked me up to IV in a lazy boy type chair. I was given some pre-chemo drugs for nausea and Benadryl. Within minutes I started to feel drowsy from the huge dose of Benadryl. I also started to get ants in my pants and dancing legs. I couldn't close my eyes to doze and I felt like I had the spins from too much booze. Chemo wouldn't be started for another 30 minutes and I did not complain. I just thought ...ok this will subside....
Pharmacist came to explain my chemo drugs and talk about side effects etc. (more on this later) She went into great detail which just confused me but they are pretty accustomed to this so there is lots of paper. She said there are drugs to combat this jitteriness if I wanted. (she noticed by dancing feet) I said no. I am so tough.
Well the first chemo drug started and it takes generally 3 hours for the full dose. Within minutes my chest got heavy and I couldn't breathe. David said my face was starting to turn red. I felt a searing heat rise from my shoulders to the top of my heard. This was no hot flash. More like a f&%*ing volcano. Well thank God there are nurses all over the place (David was already running to get one) and they know this could happen to a percentage of first timers..... well one of them ran over and took the line off and gave me oxygen. Emergency call went out and within a minute they administered another steroid. The steroids help the body accept Taxol (chemo drug). Body doesn’t want it because Taxol kills cells. Obviously the pills were not enough. Now they know and adjustments will be made by the doctor. Doctor by the way (another woman) is great and explained a lot to us on Wednesday.
Anyway I had to wait another 1/2 hour to begin the Taxol and they started with small dosage working the way up to full. My mother was coming by at 11:15 to relieve David and I was so glad she didn't witness this.
All went well after this and no more funny stuff. The heebee geebees went away with the Taxol reaction. Imagine that. I was also no longer drowsy.
Second drug (Carboplatin) was piece of cake and only took 1/2 hour. Went home at 3:00 pm and felt pretty good. Just a little tired. Having a needle in your arm for that long is just freaky.
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