So yesterday was my second trip to the chemo "bar". It's quite anticlimactic, actually. You hear all of these horror stories about chemo, but in all actuality, nothing much happens until you're back home! Due to all of the "stuff" we come with (which is another whole post), I'm lucky that they put me in a private room. My treatment center has an infusion room with a bunch of recliners sort of (but not really) sectioned off. It's depressing, really. 90% of the chemo patients are old, frail, bald and they just sit there snoozing in the recliners while the chemo drugs flow into them. Ugh. Being in a private room away from all of that is MUCH better. Hubby and I actually laugh and joke our way through the hours we are there.
Thankfully the actual infusion isn't long at all. Once they start my IV, they give me 20 minutes of "pre-meds" and then about 30 minutes of a saline drip. I receive 2 chemo drugs - adriamycin (the "red devil") and cytoxan. The red devil is a "push" where the nurse basically injects it with a syringe into my IV line. That only takes 5-10 minutes. The cytoxan is a drip which takes about an hour. After another 10-15 minute "flush" I'm good to go. Yesterday we got started around 1:45 and were home by 4:40. Not too bad.
That's when the fun begins, though. Most people do pretty well for the first couple of days, and then the crappy stuff starts around day three. Apparently I'm not "most people", because for me the crappy stuff starts around HOUR three. Luckily they changed up my anti-nausea meds this time and it seems to have helped. I still got queasy right on time, but it was manageable and no sickness yet.
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