Chemo Week 1 : Day 1 November 5th, 2024

 So begins my Cancer Journey.  

8:15 AM : Labs for Blood Draw and Port Access 

It took two nurses and a supervisor sticking me with a 1 inch fish hook 5x to determine my port is turned or upside down. By the 3rd prick I was crying and blotchy and apologizing for it.  The sweet nurses were rubbing my back and telling me it wasn't my fault - which I knew of course since the nurse told me when i had the port placed, when I SPECIFICALLY asked since I have an energetic 4 year old fond of running hugs, IF I needed to worry about the port shifting -- she told me, "No, that can't happen." So either she lied or it was installed wrong. 

Since that particular procedure was my least favorite of the half dozen I had in the last two weeks, I'm NOT looking forward to a repeat. 

Let's move on.  They did my blood draw via phlebotomy and then sent me to Infusion on the 9th floor.

9:00 AM : INFUSION

352 lbs : WEIGHT (down 15 lbs from last week so the stress diet is WORKING)

Nurse : Rachel (5 stars!!)

NP : Julia (5 stars!!)

Therapist : Sylvia (5 stars)  She gave me a pillow/blanket and Step Sisters Make up, plus her card if i need it.

Room : 24 - not private but felt like it

Visitors : Matt

I had a terrible night sleep at Lana and Ray's Monday night. Those twin beds they bot for the boys are hard as rocks.  But I think I was just stressed out. I woke up with a raging headache.  I needed 3 extra strength Tylenol to soothe it.  

Ray drove me over since Matt was busy getting the kids up and to school.  I was glad Matt wasn't there for the Port access debacle, it would have upset him to witness. 

I felt like I was moving him with my two bags and cooler but I felt better when the nurse told me some people bring in rolling crates full of stuff.  Incidentally, we will be borrowing Mary and Rob's rolling cooler for the future.  Ours didn't do the trick - my mittens, booties and ice cap weren't nearly cold enough when it was time to wear them. 

After leaving Labs my visit went pretty smoothly. They put in my IV with only one stab and in a way I was still able to use my right hand. My pre meds included Benadryl which made me very groggy. Labs were back logged so it took a while to get my results back, so when Matt arrived around 10:00 I still hadn't begun my Chemo infusion but I was getting sleepy.  He stayed long enough to watch them start the first bag, then he ran to the cafe to get me a chicken wrap (so good!) for an early lunch. We ate together and watched Ghost Rider but I was barely awake so he covered me with my turtle blanket and left to do his progress reports and pick up the boys when it was time. 

I slept for awhile. And except for discovering that my cold things weren't very cold - things went smoothly.  I finished around 4:45 and then had to go to Xray on floor 2 to have my port checked.  Ray picked me up at 5:30, I had dinner with Lana and Ray and then he drove me to Matt after rush-hour.