Fill her up!

Chemo 
Day 
One. 


Snow, school delay and then closure, kids snug in bed for a snow day in April, REALLY, & I have to drag my butt out of bed for toxic medications, COOL.

                                Got here and had blood drawn and vital signs done. 


Then I came back into the infusion area and got cubicle 3, I have always liked three for a number. 



I got Nicki for my nurse, she just transferred down to Oncology, but she is doing a great job. 


Got myself some Ativan upon arrival. This is an anti-anxiety drug they are saying is for nausea, I give it to my patients to calm them down, so I don't know it they heard rumors about me being rowdy and were trying to knock me down, but it didn't work! for the nausea yes, but I was as rowdy as ever.      
                           
Sometimes when cancer is expecting you to kick it's butt, you have to hit it with a Charlie's Angel move with  the TV clicker! Never did turn the TV on we were so busy with all the pictures.

Then Nicki had to access my port. I had put some numbing cream on it at home. She cleaned and sterilized the are, hence what looks to be a lovely shawl in the first picture. Then she just stuck the needle it. It didn't hurt, just some pressure, she asked if I wanted a mask so I didn't have to see her insert the needle, I gave my mask to Andy, she made me turn my head away, I wanted to watch. 
Once the needle is in the port they test to make sure we have access into the vein;  you basically pull syringe back and see if there is a blood return, which there was, FABULOUS!  
                

            

                                                                                                                                                                                   

              

AN NOW THAT THE PORT  ISACCESSED, ONTO THE DRUGS         

                                   

                                              WHY YES SIR I AM!
                                                                                                                            

I got Decadron & Aloxi, these are meds to help with the nausea the chemo causes, she ran these as a quick drip. Once those were done she did an IV push of the Adriamycin over a 15-20 min time. Big Nurse teaching point here, this med comes out the same color it goes in, so don't panic your first trip to the pottie                                                                  

                                                      

Once that is it, the Cytoxan gets hung and is dripped in for an hour. I was busy doing emails and didn't get a picture of that, sorry.  Throughout both the meds, I didn't feel any burning or strange sensations in my body. My trick of distracting my mind with other things served me well.

And then a special friend arrived to see me. Her name is Mini-Me. She was born last year at our group family trip to Otter Creek and she makes only rare and special visits, here the two of us are shooting the S@#t, as Andy was hard at work.

           

                                          

       AS A WISE MAN ONCE SAID........                                                                                                                                               

Mild headache and nausea, nothing I can't tolerate and far better than my worst hangover, it is all in how you look at it people!