Monday 7.7.25
The Monday before my first chemo involved going and getting a blood test in the morning to get a baseline on stuff like liver function. So went and did that first thing. Annoyingly I dropped one of the forms as I was getting out of the car. It fell right next to the car, but the ground was all wet because it had been raining. So I get to the pathologist and the form I need isn't there. I had visions of having to go home and find it. Luckily I only had to go back to the car. But I did lose my first place in the queue and had to wait a little while.
Cathy, one of the nurses at North Canberra Hospital also called me up to tell me that there's a wig place by the Cancer Council in Deakin that does subsidised wigs. Also a place called Look Good, Feel Better that can help with makeup/wigs/hats etc. Honestly I couldn't be stuffed with a wig. I'm not going out in public enough, and besides I'd probably find it itchy and irritating.
Took my first steroid pill in the afternoon.
Tuesday 8.7.25 - The First Poisoning
OMFG EPIC INSOMNIA!! I couldn't sleep because of epic restless legs. Didn't get to sleep til after 3am :(
So. Day 1 of poisoning.
The setup at Icon is quite nice. There's a big room and everyone has their own little booth around the edge, separated by curtains. There weren't many people there getting treatments which was nice - most of the booths were empty. My nurses for the day were Paula and Jocelyn (who was sick which made me a bit nervous, but apparently others were off sick too so they were short staffed).
First up I had to take an akynzeo pill, which is for preventing nausea and vomiting caused by chemo, and is effective for like four days. It can slow the guts down as well, and can cause constipation.
They also setup the cold cap (they would have done it earlier if they'd known, but Dr LM didn't tell them), although Paula said it probably wouldn't help with the chemo I was taking. Had to wait for a while for the machine to get cold (and for the akynzeo to kick in). The cold cap was somewhat unpleasant for a few minutes, but then your scalp pretty much goes numb and it's not an issue.
During the waiting (either at the beginning or during the treatment, I forget, I think a bit of both), Paula went through a lot of information with me, and answered some of my questions. Like: what should I take for diarrhea? (immodium), what should i take for constipation? (coloxyl), what should i take for nausea? (they gave me metoclopramide for that), is yakult good to take? (yes, and fibre too), when is my immune system most at risk/trashed? (in the second week - 7-10 days after treatmeant, but would mostly be back to normal by the 3rd week). The day after chemo you're meant to have an injection of lonquex, which will stimulate production of white blood cells. They said to come in for the first one and do it yourself for the subsequent treatments (but I ended up doing all four myself). They said I should take some loratadine/claratyne an hour before the injection. If I get any pain in my bones they said I could take Panadol. They also said I should keep my fingernails super short as chemo will destroy them. Oh, and Dr LM said the other day I should put dark nail polish on them to protect them from sunlight.
At 10:55 they started the first poison - docetaxel. They asked me to keep my mask off so they could watch my face to make sure I didn't have a reaction to the chemo. After ten minutes I was still ok so that was good.
At 12:13 they started the second poison - cyclophosphamide.
After the flushing I was all done by 13:00 but then had to wait another half an hour for the cold cap to keep doing its thing. I felt a little lightheaded when they took it off - not sure if it was the cold cap, or the poison, or what.
They suggested lorazepam for my restless legs and for sleeping.
Finally out the door at 14:00. The sweetie came with me for the whole time so that was awesome. He was a bit bored, but he would rather be bored with me than epic stressed at work.
So after the first round of poisoning you really have no idea of what's normal. In the afternoon I was feeling ok. Maybe slightly lightheaded. Before dinner my bowels were feeling a little off. After dinner some discomfort in the bowels. A little later it was getting a little painful. At 20:30 some very soft poo, not quite diarrhea. Hurray.
We have three thermometers (our old mercury one, a new Braun electronic one, and an electronic one we got from ICON) - they differ by like a degree. Not super useful.
All in all feeling ok by the end of the day though.
Comments