So far so good?

Chemo treatment #1: Check!

Friday morning was emotionally very difficult for me, but I was fortunate to be busy at work so my mind was mostly occupied. Derek brought me to the appointment and waited with me in the waiting room. Dr. Hartung's nurse called me back to check my vitals, and I thought I was going to lose it. Even once my doctor came in, I was still fighting back the tears. She went over all of my nausea medications with me and reviewed the side effects of the chemo treatment again. She really is wonderful and made me feel more at ease before treatment started. She walked me back to the chemo room and then it was go time.

I had a fabulous nurse for my first session. She made a me a little nervous about the port, however. Apparently it works the best if you put a big white blob of numbing cream over the port and secure it with a piece of Glad Press N Seal for an hour. Sometimes when you just rub it in your skin (like I did) it doesn't have the same effect. When she poked through the skin it really just felt like a shot or any other blood draw, so I think I will skip the Press N Seal  for now (not sure how I would explain that one to my last few patients of the day).

Once I was hooked up and running they started all of my anti-nausea medications (Dexamethasone, Aloxi and Emend). These took 30 minutes and during this time they had me watch an educational video about what side effects to expect from treatment and how best to manage them. Once those were in it was time for the Taxotere (1 hour), then the Carboplatin (1 hour), then the Herceptin (90 minutes). The initial Herceptin takes the longest, but from now on it only takes 30 minutes. My nurse learned early on what Derek has known for years...I have a bladder the size of a pea! I am making sure to drink almost 3 liters of water daily, so adding IV infusions to that means that I averaged a bathroom trip at least once an hour.

During the infusions I honestly felt fine both physically and emotionally. It feels good to have this process started, knowing that I can now be counting down to the final treatment. Derek sat with me for the last 20 minutes of the infusion (and handled it like a trooper!). I felt completely fine when we left, so we stopped to pick up some prescriptions, grabbed some Chinese takeout for dinner and even did some grocery shopping. 

About 4 hours after leaving I started to feel a little queasy. I'm not even so sure that I would go as far to call it nausea, but my stomach felt a little unsettled. I was tired anyway so I took Ativan (a medication to help me sleep and help with nausea) and went to bed. I slept straight through until 4am (I can't remember the last time that happened) but did wake up feeling a little unsettled again. An empty stomach can make nausea worse, so I took some Compazine (another prescription for nausea) and had some breakfast. 

Honestly...that is how this entire weekend has gone. No vomiting. No hovering near the toilet. Just me diligently taking my medications and snacking on something every few hours. I was going into this weekend expecting the worst so that I would be happy with anything better than that, but I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would feel so...normal! I have had a few episodes of uncomfortable stomach cramping, but so far that's it! I have been taking advantage of this weekend and using my time to get some things done around the house and I ran some errands yesterday. I am a little nervous about the fatigue that it supposed to come later in the week, but I am hoping this weekend is a sign of things to come. I go back tomorrow for an injection of Neulasta (to help boost up my white blood cell count) and again on Friday afternoon for labs and to meet with their NP. This visit will mainly be to let them know how I did these weekend and see if they need to make any adjustments to my nausea medications (nope, keep them coming please)!

Thank you so much to everyone for your words of encouragement for the past several days. I really can't tell you enough how much they all mean to me. I'll post another update later in the week!

Aimee :)