Anyway, chemo started about a week and a half ago, Monday, February 23rd. It wasn't an unpleasant experience at all. Here's the process I'll go through every time I go for treatment: I'll arrive and do what they call 'lab' which is when they take a sample of my blood and make sure my cell counts are good, such as white blood cells, hemoglobin (not sure on the spelling) and such like that. Once they determine my cell counts are acceptable, I go into the chemotherapy room. It's a big room with 15 or so big recliner-style chairs (not Lay-Z boy, but not just some stupid waiting room chair). Some of them have TV's near them, and all of them have a tray on both sides of them. I sat down in a chair, and then we begin. My treatment requires 4 different drugs, the first 3 are pushed in manually by one of the Med. Onc. nurses through a syringe (spelling?). All three of those drugs combined takes a total of a 25 minute push. After that, the nurse hooks me up to a pump which has the big bag containing the 4th and final drug, and that one drips through over a period of 2 hours. Like I said, the experience actually wasn't unpleasant at all, I couldn't feel any of the medication being pumped into me, the hardest part was the long wait, which wasn't too bad because I can bring in my laptop, books and homework, novels, etc. to pass the time. The only part worth complaining about was, when I had about 45 minutes left to go, a younger gentleman (I'd guess 22-26ish or so years old) came in, sat in the chair next to mine, which is no problem at all, but it became an issue when he put his ear buds in and began listening to his ipod. He had his music loud enough that I swear the entire room could hear it... and his music was just WEIRD! I have no idea what genre it was or anything but it was just odd, and I wasn't enjoying it. All in all though, I didn't mind it, and the nurses there are super friendly and easy to talk to.
As far as side effects go, I began feeling them later that day. I had tried eating, and immediately after i swallowed my first bite, I felt this pit-like feeling in my stomach and after a while it actually grew quite uncomfortable and at times, pretty painful. In addition to this, I was finding that I was having a hard time holding my food down. About 5 minutes after I would eat, I would feel like I was about to throw it all back up any minute. They gave me a prescription for anti-nausea medication (which was absolutely disgusting, I'd have to chug a whole bottle of water after swallowing the pills before the awful taste would go away), anyway, without the meds, I probably would have been throwing up. I never did actually end up regurgitating my lunch but a couple times I felt I was close to. Also another issue I experienced was some kind of heart burn or acid reflex type symptom. It was worse than any other heartburn I'd ever had and it was so bad that it was waking me out of a dead sleep, and I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep because of how uncomfortable and painful it was. For the most part, I didn't have too much troubles sleeping, or at least I'd fall asleep easily enough, but I had some issues with waking up quite frequently throughout the night, which was just more annoying than anything else. These symptoms lasted through Sunday night, and I'd say were most severe on Friday and Saturday. This monday when I woke up for class, I felt a bit better, and so far this week I've felt pretty much back to normal, save a few instances of unsettled stomach. So from what I've gathered so far, the first week after treatment is the most intense symptoms-wise and the second week truly will be a good resting period before the next treatment.
Well I think that's all I have for you right now, sorry again for how long it's taken me to post! Also, sorry for writing a book! Thanks again to everyone for all the love and support you've been giving me. Every little bit helps me to keep fighting and stay strong!
Love to all,
Steve
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