I made it through the holidays. I cut my hair, which had been almost to my waist, all the way up to my chin in preparation for it to start falling out. I was surprised how much I loved my short hair, my hair had been long most of my life. I was still feeling weak, but I made it to a family Christmas party and even played a few games of pool while I was there. I celebrated the new year and just a few days after was my first chemo treatment.

Chemotherapy just sounds scary! What you don’t realize going in is that the nurses are amazing and they are already preparing for how scared and anxious you may be, not to mention preparing for any possible side affects you may have. As I mentioned before I went to Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. They have a really nice infusion center, which is where chemotherapy is administered to most patients. So I arrived in comfortable clothing, I recommend wearing a zippered sweatshirt and a tank top underneath, that way you can just take off your sweatshirt and pull your tank top off your shoulder, to allow the nurse to access your port without having to take anything off. The first thing that happens is you get blood drawn from your port. This is a process, first they clean the skin around your port and then they ask if you want lidocaine, say yes! This will numb you because next they take a 1 inch needle, that is a little thick, and is attached to a little hose or line and stick it in your port. Next they will take a syringe full of saline and flush your port and then start to take some blood. The nurse will flush your port after the blood draw and then leave the needle and the line attached and tape it to your chest and send you off to see your oncologist.

Your oncologist will check your blood work to make sure your levels are ok and check you out to make sure you’re well enough to receive your treatment and that you don’t need any additional medication while you’re there.

I met with my oncologist, everything was as expected and down I went to get my first infusion of CHOP. That is the abbreviation of my chemo regimen, it stands for cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone. Don’t know why that is the abbreviation since it has nothing to do with the letters in the word CHOP. Fun stuff! All of these drugs have some wonderful side effects, some of which include hair loss, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and some other more severe side effects that are all listed in the book of paperwork you get that you are supposed to read and then sign a waiver basically saying you know the risks involved with what is about to be put into your body.

I waited nervously in the waiting room of the infusion center, needle in place and line taped to my chest. I was tired and anxious and just wanted this to be over. My name was called and I was led back to a big recliner, I had my mom with me and she was given a chair to sit in, not as comfortable looking as mine. We had a little curtained off room with a TV and a little table. The nurse had me sit down and she asked me some basic questions, name, birthday, medications I was taking and then took my temperature and blood pressure. After all the formalities, I had to wait longer because they don’t just keep your chemo infusion on ice until you get there, the pharmacist makes it to order. While I waited I was given benadryl in case I had an allergic reaction to any of the drugs. I was also hooked up to some fluid, just because the nurse figured I could use a little extra hydration. I was told there was a kitchen in the infusion center with sandwiches and snacks free to all the patients and their family members. I didn’t feel much like eating though.

Finally my bag of drugs arrived and the nurse came in with another nurse, both in full PPE. One read off my hospital bracelet while the other one verified the information in the computer and then they asked me again my name and birthday. Then they read off the label on the bag of fluid full of chemotherapy and verify its all accurate and had been signed off by my oncologist. There are times that hasn’t happened and you have to wait even longer.

So once everything is verified the nurse will clean the line attached to your port and attach it to the tube coming off the IV pole, typically there is another bag of saline that runs with the bag of chemo to dilute the drugs a little, plus it gives you a little extra hydration, most of the time you need it. The nurse will use a Y shaped attachment to connect it all together so everything is still just running into your port. The nurse will set the machine that the IV bags are attached to, to run at a certain speed and that will determine how long your infusion will take. The nurse will come and check on you every 30 minutes, he or she will check your blood pressure and ask how your feeling, even if your asleep. I slept through most of my 4 hour infusion, thank you benadryl!

I left feeling a little drained and still groggy, but I felt a little better knowing this was all I was going to have to do every 3 weeks for the next couple months. I couldn’t have been more wrong. If there is one thing I would learn going through this it’s that nothing is going to go as planned…