Chemo Treatment #2 – Day One

Wed Aug 22 – 2012 Chemo #2 Day One – Chemo Lounge

Well chemo treatment number two started. I have been nervous about this, but now that it’s started I’m fine. I got to go over to see the ♥baby♥ for a few hours last night and that made me feel good. 🙂

My appointment started at 10am when I had some blood drawn for regular blood work pre-chemo. At 1030 I met with Daisy, Dr Phillips’ nurse practitioner. At this short meeting I was told that my white blood cell count and red blood cell count were low. Daisy went and talked about this with Dr Phillips and came back saying that I could continue with the chemo treatment but my oxaliplatin dose would be lowered and they would call insurance about permission to give me a shot of Neulasta to help build up my blood counts. Permissions came through and I will head to Theda Clark on Saturday afternoon to get shot up. 🙂

Daisy also looked at my incision and confirmed that a small spot was still open at the surface. She put several steri-strips on the opening to alleviate my worries.

My time in the chair started at 11am. It seemed to go quickly this week but I was reminded that last treatment I had a lot of training and information talks with the nurses. Like the first treatment the benadryl knocked me out for a bit. But don’t worry, the steroids will wind me up LOL.

dextrose – hydration

benadryl – to head off any allergic reactions

dexamethasone – steroid for nausea

palonosetron – steroid for nausea

————————————

leucovorin – helper drug for the 5FU

oxaliplatin – actual chemo drug

5FU – chemo push and pump

————————————

Avastin – still on hold due to open incision

I stopped at work after chemo to hand in all my HR paperwork for getting paid while I’m off. They are being great about what I need. Again it was so nice to walk the halls and see my friends!! Love you guys! ♥♥♥ I am planning on going back to work on Sept 10. This will be the off week after my third treatment. One quarter of the way through, I should be in some kind of routine by then (though I do know that every treatment can affect you differently).

I am experiencing a few small side effects. I had one episode of “first bite syndrome.” This is a weird or sometimes painful spasm of the jaw with your first bite of food. It only lasts a few seconds and is only on the first bite. My episode was not painful just a weird spasm. The other side effect I had was a little cold sensitivity. I had taken a melon out of the fridge and it had some dirt on it so I ran it under cold water. Between the fridge cold and the water cold my fingers started tingling immediately but did stop as soon as I dried off my hands and they warmed up. I was able to slice up the melon and eat it without any more problems.  Both of these effects are due to the oxaliplatin (the kick-ass part of my cocktail).  I hope this is the extent of my issues this week.

Great new TV and Netflix is going to keep me company tonight if I can’t sleep 🙂

~~ Gayla