The Day After (Chemo Infusion 1)
I woke up with a migraine this morning, feeling just awful. Then my face turned red and started puffing up while my eyes turned glassy. Alarmed, I called the on-call MD at the cancer center. He told me to take Benedryl and 1000 mg of Tylenol, because it seemed like a mild allergic reaction. As it turned out, it worked-go figure!
For the few days after each infusion, they have you take a series of anti-nausea meds. The idea is to stop nausea before it starts, if possible. What it means is that you end up having to take different medicines every few hours, all day long. I'm not sure which is making me queasier, the chemotherapy or looking at that pile of medicine bottles that I have to keep opening up. Ugh.
The good news is that despite feeling sick all day long (queasy and burpy, actually), I didn't throw up. I hate throwing up. For the most part, I just don't do it. You kind of have to poison me to make me vomit. Actually, that kind of worried me because...well...I just had people poison me! But force of will appears to be winning. Yay, me!
My sister drove up from the South Bay to visit with me while Kathy went to an appointment with our hair stylist in San Francisco. Debbie brought a card from my teenage nephew. Inside it he wrote:
Dear Aunt Alix - I heard that today was your first day of chemotherapy, and I want to tell you that I love you very much. I am looking forward to seeing you again to talk. Remember that we all love you and will do whatever we can to help you no matter what. With much love...
It was very sweet and really made my day.
I showed my sister all the colorful wigs that have arrived, including the latest arrival: the pink 60s flip. When she saw the long lavender wig, she said I had to wear that with a unicorn T-shirt, because it was just screaming out for that. I'll be on the lookout for on ASAP.
After that, I sort of melted into the damask of the loveseat and dozed while my sister watched a movie. I felt like I could barely move and all sorts of body parts were aching.
Later this evening, after Kathy had returned and my sister went home, I had to give myself the Neulasta injection. That's the $2700/dose medicine to help keep my white blood cell count from bottoming out during this chemo cycle.
I'd never given myself an injection before, so I was very nervous. If you are an X-Files fan, it can be difficult to inject yourself with something that has "colony growth stimulator" in the description. But, after reading through the instructions four or five times, I decided it was now or never. I picked up the syringe, prepared to inject it into my tummy, and then...dropped it on the floor! Oops! I even felt it poke my leg on the way down.
Moving fast, I swooped to pick up the syringe. I then spent a moment looking at it, thinking, "This cost almost $3000." I wiped the needle with alcohol and injected it into my tummy.
You do what ya gotta do.
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