October 12, Day 50

First day of Chemo treatments and the day went extremely long. We had to be there at 7am and didn’t finish until 4pm. We started with lab work, another visit with the nurse and the medical oncologist before heading up to the infusion center. They gave us a tour and explained how the floor was laid out so that each time we come, we know our own way around. They showed us to the recliner chair that I would spend the day in and the small, uncomfortable chair for my guest. My chair was very plush with my own flat screen with all cable channels, nice warm blanket and tables for magazines and books on each side. There were snacks available all day and a volunteer passing out lunches around noon. Poor Tom was stuck in the uncomfortable chair getting tripped over by the nurses all day when they came in to change my meds around. He was a trooper through it all always smiling and running to get me snacks and even remaining pleasant when a volunteer made sure the chocolate ice cream he was getting for me was in fact for a patient and not for himself. I’m sure he was tempted to be a smart ass about how much money we are spending there and the tiny ice cream cup must be about a 10cent cost to the hospital. Anyway, he was good.

We watched a video that explained all the nuances of receiving chemo and what to watch out for. Mostly stuff we had already been warned about for me but a few surprises for others living with me. Apparently I can get bombarded with massive amounts of these toxins but if I were to drip one little teeny stray spot of pee on the toilet seat and someone were to sit on it after me, they could get exposed to the toxins which is apparently something I need to be very concerned about. Tom and I got a chuckle out of how ridiculous that sounded to us. Anyway, I’ll do my best to not drip on the toilet seat and will always do a “look back” to check just in case something sneaks through. I wouldn’t want anyone to get a tiny dose of these highly toxic chemicals.

As for the rest of the day, I felt tired and queasy, but that was it. Round 1 over, 5 more to go. Next days for treatments: Nov. 2, Nov. 23, Dec. 14th. And two more after that in January sometime.