i'm a beast!!

Had my first round of chemo yesterday.

First they gave me a huge dose of Benadryl which was supposed to lower the chances of a major allergic reaction and was supposed to knock me out. The doc said "we're giving you the same dose we give someone twice your size. I'd expect you to sleep most of the day!" The other patients who got the same meds as me, at the same time were all asleep within fifteen minutes of the Benadryl hitting their system, and they all slept 2-5 hours. Me? i got too drowsy to read (which pissed me off) but i couldn't sleep. At all. I tried. Nope. Walked through it like nothing!

The second med they gave me was a massive dose of something that was to lower risks of side effects like nausea,  lower the general aches and pains of sitting in a semi-uncomfortable chair in basicly one position for eight hours, and lower the IV site pain.. The doc said 'none of our patients on your treatment program sleep the night after chemo. Expect to be up all night, due to this med.' Me? I slept like i normally do last night. Even took a nap twice before i went to bed.

The chemo itself is administered very slowly in small doses. They check every fifteen minutes and if you're okay, they raise the dose a tiny bit. The main reaction they expect you to have is chills. The other patients had chills ranging from minor to terrible. Me? Not the slightest. They started upping my dose, and increasing the time to thirty minutes, because i was doing so well. Finally they basicly just had the IV run wide open at the end, because i was actually warm and had kicked off my blanket! i got out of there at 2:30 when they expected me to be their til 4 or 5!!

SO...i'm hoping this is all good? The nurses were laughing and saying i'm the best behaved patient they ever had because i had no problems of any kind. Hopefully this stuff works!!!

As for the 'at home' side effects, so far i've had some nausea, but nothing horrible. Nothing i can't deal with! And i noticed in the chemo room, they have some snacks for the patients and they had a huge basket of cinnamon candy sticks...you know, that old fashioned hard candy that's in stick form? When the first bit of nausea hit me last night, i had a sudden uncontrollable craving for cinnamon toast, remembered the cinnamon candy sticks being out for the patients...so i made cinnamon toast and the nausea disappeared. Weird but true. Had a bit of nausea a few times today but nothing i can't deal with. Luckily i love cinnamon toast! 

So today i'm generally achy, very tired and weak, and nauseous off and on...but i'm okay!!

Thanks again for all the prayers and well wishes and good vibes. Keep it up though, because we're still not sure if this stuff is gonna work. i go back in two weeks for a second round, then we wait a couple MORE weeks before we know if it's STARTING to work.

i'm sooooo glad i found 2o2play. i really am. This community is so much more than just a bunch of gamers over 25. It's a bunch of really kind, caring people. You guys...seriously...i love ya!!!