Good news: I did not eat cookies, so I did not toss them.
I’ve heard and read stories of chemotherapy reactions; Nausea, vomiting, pain, seizures, fever and more. But none of them happened…yet.
Today’s massive regimen of medicines were designed to avert those issues and still kill the cancer cells. It started by swallowing two pills that interfere with the vomiting signals for 5 days. Add two Tylenol. Then along came this massive hypodermic needle piercing my abdomen to stop nausea.
The first bag of liquid rinsed the IV port and line, then on with the meds: Five of them. The component package is called R-CHOP. Each letter of the acronym represents a different medicine. The first bag that took about four hours tested my ability to tolerate the others. Nurses said the first hour is when the patient would react negatively. It started off at a weak strength and increased by 50 cc’s every ½ hour. Mid way I started to develop a mild allergic reaction: Sore throat and itchy inner ears that felt exactly like hay fever. But they unplugged it, gave me something to counteract the reaction, pumped some saline, then continued at a lower strength, eventually draining the bag with no more issues.
Then came the “red devil”. This raspberry Jello-looking goop was too thick to drip through the lines so they “pushed” it with this wide plastic syringe into the IV lines. Finally, other pouches of clear liquids concluded the day.
I had a normal hunger and thirst all day although I felt groggy. Volunteers wandered through the treatment room offering snacks, drinks and warm blankets. The chair was a comfortable recliner and I was instructed to bring along any food, book, or entertainment device. I slept on and off.
The treatment took 9 hours. We opened and closed the joint.
On the way home we picked up a prescription to prevent nausea and Prednisone. Doctor says it will make me energetic, hungry, sleepless and in five days I will crash.
To play it safe I’m enjoying oatmeal for dinner.
Lumpy Bob 