Chemo #2

Just had chemo treatment #2 on Monday and felt a little less "rookie" than last time.  I knew what to expect which helped a lot.  This was much shorter than the first one which spanned two days.  I went in at 8:45 and left at about 2:45.  Six hours of filling me up with drugs and fluids.  I never would have thought chemotherapy would be so time consuming.  Originally I thought I would like to just have someone drop me off and pick me up when I was done but I realize now I like the company to make the time pass.  This time Kristine took me which was nice because she is a nurse practitioner and was not afraid to ask why they used a certain medication or why I had to pay a "specialist" copay, etc.  It was soothing to have someone there who has  medical background.  She was fun to talk to.  When the Benadryl kicked in and made me a little less then coherent she was also very understanding...It is so strange how the first hour your just chatting away and then all of a sudden you feel you're in another world and don't quite know how to carry on conversation.  Then after you work through that for an hour or two it goes away and you can converse again.  Weird stuff.  Kristine stayed until noon and then Edee showed up with lunch for us!  What a pleasant surprise!  The nausea starts to hit after a few hours and so I was so grateful to get the lunch in before the nausea came.  Though we are only allowed one visitor at a time the nurse didn't shoo away Edee so the three of us were able to eat lunch and chat for 10-15 minutes.  Then Nancy came in and touched my heart as she wore her crocheted hat and pulled all her hair back to show her support of chemo day...and the fact that a few days before we shaved my head.  It meant so much to me to see her in that hat!  I'm continuously amazed by the sweet things people will do to help ease the burden.

 This is Nancy, me, Edee, and Kristine just before we got in trouble for breaking the rules:).  After the four of us visited for 5 or 10 minutes the nurse had to tell us "only 1 visitor at a time"!  Nancy stayed and I said goodbye and thank-you to Kristine and Edee for making my day.  Kristine surprised me with a beautiful hat from the cancer boutique in the same building.  People are good...

Thankfully, this round has not been as bad as the last round.  I didn't have near the wretched nausea that I did last time.  It comes in waves but is milder and more doable.  I also didn't deprive myself of the sleeping pills (it is really hard to sleep after all the steroids they give you) which I think helped make things less severe.  My only complaint was I caught my kid's colds by the end of the week which contributed to a bit more of a general ill feeling--still not as bad as last time though.