First treatment down, how is Sarah doing?
I'm okay. For now. *knock on wood*
I went in at 9:30 yesterday like a good little soldier.
Then I waited. Well, WE waited. My mother was there with me. And waited. Then I sent to the bathroom, because well-hydrated. Got snagged on the way back by the phlebotomist who took all my blood. Then we waited some more.
Finally went back and got put in the chair-- Well, you know that spot in the restaurant that's right next to the kitchen and right on all the paths the servers take to get to and from everywhere? That's the seat I was put in. Not tucked away in a corner with lots of room around me like the ENTIRE REST OF THE ROOM was set up. But...right on every path. I had to move my bag to let the crash cart go past. But it was fine. A bit cramped, but it was okay. :)
Then we waited some more. For the pharmacy to get all my premeds. And I presume the actual drugs. But the premeds were two different long-acting (like, 3-4 days, I think) anti-nausea meds. And a steroid.
Once the drugs (finally) came, the port placement. Which was fine. I mean, I have a lot of ink. Needles are fine. :) When they had to cover it for sterility, they used a Tegaderm patch specifically for sensitive skin and put on a sensitive-skin gel on my skin first so it would come off easily. Because my OTHER allergy is to medical adhesive. For example, this was 24 hours after taking off some non-sensitive skin Tegaderm that I'd put on for three hours as an experiment:
That's actually not a good picture. It was darker IRL. Yay. But anyway, today the port site is fine. So that's good.
So, once the port was engaged, we started with the drugs. One anti-nausea drug, the steroid, the other anti-nausea drug. And then the first chemo drug:
That one was put in manually by the nurse. I sucked ice chips the whole way through, which is apparently a way to avoid mouth sores. The other one (which was clear) was put in with the IV machine. And then we were done!
Or...not quite. They had to set me up with Neulasta, which is a drug to stimulate bone marrow production, because along with killing fast-growing cancer cells, fast-growing hair follicles, and fast-growing stomach lining cells, chemo drugs also kill fast-growing bone marrow production. So anti-nausea drugs counteract the stomach cell death, Neulasta counteracts the bone marrow production slowdown, and there's nothing they can do or they don't bother to counteract the hair loss.
ANYWAY, you need to get the Neulasta the NEXT day after treatment and there are two ways to get the Neulasta: a shot or an autoinjector they stick to your arm which goes off 27 hours after the end of your chemo treatment and injects you with the Neulasta. But the Cancer Center is closed on Saturdays and I can't go in to them to get the shot, so I either need the auto-injector, or to go in to the Express Care center at 11am on Saturday and get them to give me the injection. I chose autoinjection. So my nurse, Jay, opened the bubble pack and showed me the package insert. I read it desultorily until I got to the word "adhesive." I think they were explaining that they could have a shower because the adhesive was strong enough to deal with water, or something. But I just saw adhesive and *headdesk*. Medical adhesive.
So today I went into the Express Care in a mask, because sick people everywhere, waited, gave them my prescription, waited, had them order my prescription from the pharmacy, waited some more, and finally, an hour after I arrived, got the shot.
Here's the thing: Neulasta costs around $20,000. Twenty THOUSAND dollars. TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS. For ONE shot. So thank GOD Jay had just opened the recloseable bubble pack and not the actual auto-injector, because that'd be $20,000 someone would have to eat. And it took an extra 30-45 minutes today to get my shot than it would at the Cancer Center because they can no longer pre-order them from the Pharmacy for all the people they know SHOULD be coming in to get it, because sometimes they DON'T come and the drug is too expensive to send rambling around the hospital for people who don't show up. So I might try the auto-injector next time and...risk the adhesive. Or ask them if my mother (an RN) can inject me.
Anyway, how am I feeling? Yesterday I was fuzzy. Not brain-fuzzy, but like all my molecules were vibrating. Which might have been the steroids, the anti-nausea drugs (that's what previous anti-nausea drugs have done to me in treating my heat injuries), or, you know, the toxins that were pumped into me to kill the cancer. I woke up this morning feeling like I had the flu but without the upper respiratory symptoms. The headache I had all day has gone away now. In the late afternoon I started feeling...not nausea, but medium level heartburn. I'm...I mean, I'm not feeling great, and I'm expecting it to get worse because everyone says it will, but I'm okay. Tired and still a bit shaky, but okay. For now.
So that was Treatment #1.
I went in at 9:30 yesterday like a good little soldier.
Then I waited. Well, WE waited. My mother was there with me. And waited. Then I sent to the bathroom, because well-hydrated. Got snagged on the way back by the phlebotomist who took all my blood. Then we waited some more.
Finally went back and got put in the chair-- Well, you know that spot in the restaurant that's right next to the kitchen and right on all the paths the servers take to get to and from everywhere? That's the seat I was put in. Not tucked away in a corner with lots of room around me like the ENTIRE REST OF THE ROOM was set up. But...right on every path. I had to move my bag to let the crash cart go past. But it was fine. A bit cramped, but it was okay. :)
Then we waited some more. For the pharmacy to get all my premeds. And I presume the actual drugs. But the premeds were two different long-acting (like, 3-4 days, I think) anti-nausea meds. And a steroid.
Once the drugs (finally) came, the port placement. Which was fine. I mean, I have a lot of ink. Needles are fine. :) When they had to cover it for sterility, they used a Tegaderm patch specifically for sensitive skin and put on a sensitive-skin gel on my skin first so it would come off easily. Because my OTHER allergy is to medical adhesive. For example, this was 24 hours after taking off some non-sensitive skin Tegaderm that I'd put on for three hours as an experiment:
That's actually not a good picture. It was darker IRL. Yay. But anyway, today the port site is fine. So that's good.
So, once the port was engaged, we started with the drugs. One anti-nausea drug, the steroid, the other anti-nausea drug. And then the first chemo drug:
That one was put in manually by the nurse. I sucked ice chips the whole way through, which is apparently a way to avoid mouth sores. The other one (which was clear) was put in with the IV machine. And then we were done!
Or...not quite. They had to set me up with Neulasta, which is a drug to stimulate bone marrow production, because along with killing fast-growing cancer cells, fast-growing hair follicles, and fast-growing stomach lining cells, chemo drugs also kill fast-growing bone marrow production. So anti-nausea drugs counteract the stomach cell death, Neulasta counteracts the bone marrow production slowdown, and there's nothing they can do or they don't bother to counteract the hair loss.
ANYWAY, you need to get the Neulasta the NEXT day after treatment and there are two ways to get the Neulasta: a shot or an autoinjector they stick to your arm which goes off 27 hours after the end of your chemo treatment and injects you with the Neulasta. But the Cancer Center is closed on Saturdays and I can't go in to them to get the shot, so I either need the auto-injector, or to go in to the Express Care center at 11am on Saturday and get them to give me the injection. I chose autoinjection. So my nurse, Jay, opened the bubble pack and showed me the package insert. I read it desultorily until I got to the word "adhesive." I think they were explaining that they could have a shower because the adhesive was strong enough to deal with water, or something. But I just saw adhesive and *headdesk*. Medical adhesive.
So today I went into the Express Care in a mask, because sick people everywhere, waited, gave them my prescription, waited, had them order my prescription from the pharmacy, waited some more, and finally, an hour after I arrived, got the shot.
Here's the thing: Neulasta costs around $20,000. Twenty THOUSAND dollars. TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS. For ONE shot. So thank GOD Jay had just opened the recloseable bubble pack and not the actual auto-injector, because that'd be $20,000 someone would have to eat. And it took an extra 30-45 minutes today to get my shot than it would at the Cancer Center because they can no longer pre-order them from the Pharmacy for all the people they know SHOULD be coming in to get it, because sometimes they DON'T come and the drug is too expensive to send rambling around the hospital for people who don't show up. So I might try the auto-injector next time and...risk the adhesive. Or ask them if my mother (an RN) can inject me.
Anyway, how am I feeling? Yesterday I was fuzzy. Not brain-fuzzy, but like all my molecules were vibrating. Which might have been the steroids, the anti-nausea drugs (that's what previous anti-nausea drugs have done to me in treating my heat injuries), or, you know, the toxins that were pumped into me to kill the cancer. I woke up this morning feeling like I had the flu but without the upper respiratory symptoms. The headache I had all day has gone away now. In the late afternoon I started feeling...not nausea, but medium level heartburn. I'm...I mean, I'm not feeling great, and I'm expecting it to get worse because everyone says it will, but I'm okay. Tired and still a bit shaky, but okay. For now.
So that was Treatment #1.