My First Chemotherapy session

My first Chemotherapy session was scheduled on a Friday. Exactly one week after my preliminary biopsy results came back, 4 Days after my first Oncologist appointment, and less than 24 hours after my Chemotherapy class.

Julia stayed over the Thursday night before and we left the apartment around 8:30 and got to the hospital just after 9:00. My dad was there when we got there and we went up to the 3rd Floor to the Oncology department. Got in line and registered, they were called me in pretty quickly, a good thing because I was freaking out. They walked all three of us to the overflow Chemotherapy room. One of the things they had mentioned in the Chemo class was only one visitor per patient, but that didn't phase Julia and my dad.

 

First thing they did is stick the needle in my hand to start the IV. They took my blood pressure and wow shocker super high. Going through a little bit of stress would cause the high BP so they took another 20 minutes re-testing until they decided to give me something for the anxiety. 1MG of Lorazepam did the trick, BP went down and I was feeling really good. They fired up the IV and started pumping Magnesium into my system. Forty Five minutes later they started with the first Chemo drug. Felt like my whole arm was burning cold. I know that sounds weird but that is what it felt like. Endured that with some help from the nurses wrapping my arm in warm blankets and using some heating pads got through the 50 minutes of that drug. They started the second drug and at that point it was getting a bit crowded in the Chemo room, so the nurse enforced the 1 visitor per patient, and my dad left, and let Julia sit in with me. about half an hour later Julia left to go get my dad, just as I experienced one of this drugs wonderful side effects frequent needing to urinate(it may just have been the fact that they had sent 4 IV bags through my arm at this time.)

 

I got back from walking my beat up body to the bathroom, and my dad was there waiting. He and I hung out for about a half hour and he left to send Julia back in. As she got back the Lorazepam was really starting to work, and the last drug was finishing off. I was high as a kite on the anti-anxiety drug, evident in the shot below.

 



All in all my first Chemo session wasn't too terrible..