POV: Chemo Day
Hey pals,
I have finished round three (woo! halfway!) and I am currently at some point in the day of getting my 4th round of chemo cocktails. I thought it would be interesting to shed some light on what a day of chemo actually looks like and let you try to see where I am when you read this! Haha!
so place the headband on my head as I say “GRWM for Chemo!”
(that was a joke for the TikTok pals)
7:00-7:15 Hilary and I frantically leave the house in pursuit of coffee and dry ice. Josh takes the little gals to school and helps them get everywhere on time (hopefully🤞)!
7:30-7:45 We roll up to a loading dock off the side of the highway to meet our dry ice plug. Hilary is on the phone doing deals. (kidding)
8:00 We actually ~ roll ~ into the center with our wagon in tow. It is packed with our two coolers (one with cold caps & another with mittens + booties all on dry ice), two oversized chemo bags with #stuff, a blanket, our LARGE jugs of water, and probably our kitchen sink somewhere in the bottom.
8:30 I get my blood drawn in the little lab and bloodwork is done to see what my counts are.
8:45-9:25 We meet with the Oncologist to discuss the symptoms from the last three weeks, next steps, and I am given the gold star to get the #drugs based on my white blood cell levels and platelet count among other numbers.
9:30-9:45 We head to the next floor to the infusion room. I say hi to all of my nurse friends, get all hooked up, and begin my IV.
9:45-12:30 These first few hours I actually only receive steroids, anti-nausea, and fluids. This portion is the “immunotherapy” part. The goal here is to lessen the blow of the chemo side effects, but not lessen the effectiveness. This is the only time Mom and I really get to sit still and chill!
11:30-12:30ish We have guest appearances usually for lunch! Dad, cousins, and best friends have all taken turns with Mom (since I can only have one visitor at a time). :)
11:30ish or 1 hour before chemo begins, while I am getting the immunotherapy drugs, the cold capping starts. (Jail for that!) I also started icing my hands and feet as well. The goal here is to prevent nerve damage of my hands and feet that would result in pain and loss of feeling. #yay! I only lost the feeling of temperatures during the first round and once I started icing it seemed to not happen again!
12:30-3:30 Chemo, chemo, chemo. Bleh. Mom is still changing the cap every 25-30 minutes… there isn’t much down time at all and I am freezing head to fingers to toes! However, the big chair is heated and the wonderful nurses will bring you blankets fresh from the dryer.
3:30-4 Chemo is done! Now I get a little “button” placed on my stomach that will administer medicine in 24ish hours and we finally get to escape head out!
6:30 We have been home for a few hours now and have officially been cold capping for 7 hours. At this point I am starting to lose it because of how much my head hurts, but now WE ARE DONE!
We usually eat dinner pretty quick and then I fall asleep as soon as I sit still too long, haha!
That wraps up the day of chemo, but I wanted to keep going since a pattern has finally emerged! (Thankfully!)
5:30 PM Thursday my “button” buzzes and the medicine is injected. This medicine targets my bones and triggers them to produce all the good things I need to build my immune system back up. This usually can cause patients a lot of pain, but so far I just take some Claritin (weird, but it works) and I just get a little sore!
Thursday-Monday I am a bit out of it. I do have a few hours where I am very present and my normal self, and limit what work I do feel like doing to that time. Outside of that, I don’t make the most sense and really just need to sleep it off. I am sleeping a lot and feel drunk (not in a fun way) or hungover.
I also get what is known as the “chemo rash” which really just looks like a full body sunburn. #woo It stresses me out, so I am constantly taking my temperature to ensure it isn’t higher than 100.4 (which would cause a visit to the ER).
I have also had GI issues from day one that have caused bigger dehydration issues. Because of this and in an effort to flush the chemo out of my body faster, I am chugging water and pedialyte as fast as I can. These GI issues have led to a constant battle trying to figure out what to eat these past few months. I don’t want to make it worse and because every online source provides contrary advice on a “Cancer Diet.”
Thankfully, a round of fluids was added to my treatment plan in response to the GI issues. Previous to this I had been in a dehydrated state for as long as a month and a half. This fluid intake now occurs about halfway through my 3 week recovery period and has made a world of a difference!
I know these symptoms sound horrible and these are just the ones constant throughout the past 2-3 rounds, but if I can make it through the first 5 days then I have usually made it through the worst of it.
So once Monday rolls around, I am back working regular hours and making a lot more sense with what feels like a small cold. I really am thankful for the fact that all of this could be ALOT worse.
TaTa for now,
Mags ;)
P.S. I will have another update soon on my progress that was seen in the “halfway scans”, but it is looking good right now. I just want to hear it from the Oncologist this morning and confirm it before I share!
