Chemo Status: 1 of 8 Complete

Fortunately getting to chemo was less eventful than getting to the port placement appointment last week. And all went smoothly. This time my running buddy Wilmarie drove me, sat beside me working the entire time, and taking notes on her computer whenever the nurse chatted with me!  There is something special about regular running partners - a combination of friend, family, therapist and trainer. If you don’t have one, you should find one, or more ❤️  

First chemo done. Everyone is asking how I feel. I’m doing okay for now but I know some side effects, if I get them, may not hit for a couple days or more.

I spent the rest of the day after chemo sleeping or lounging on the sofa from feeling lightheaded and having a mild headache. Took some anti nausea meds when I thought something was off, yet still ate relatively normal food. I had a metallic taste in my mouth, but that’s not an unknown to me - I had the same during pregnancy. So I had pickles on a sandwich and they tasted heavenly!  

Have you seen the commercials for Neulasta?  Silver haired woman enjoying her perfect backyard garden and her Diane-Keaton-like-home with her perfectly silver haired husband during the days after her chemo, rather than having to re-enter the depressing infection-laden hospital to receive a shot of pelfilgrastim that boosts white blood counts (like the neupogen shots I received in the hospital last week).  Well, that’s me now!  Except that my backyard is a frozen tundra scattered with kids toys and last-summer’s tomato cages looking neglected and unwanted. And you can barely walk through my house, due to laundry, toys, bicycles, scooters, stacks of medical bills and EOBs, and snotty bacteria-covered children.  So, same same. 

Sorry, I got a little off track there. What I meant to say is that I have this cool little piece of tech on my arm that will dose me at home the day after my chemo. This used to require an office visit because it’s a shot. Instead the contraption poked me once right after application and retracted leaving a tiny tube in. It has a timer and a flashing green light tells me it’s working just fine. At some point it will dose me, beep some more, show it’s empty and I can remove it myself.  Pretty pretty cool, right?!

Because I felt so lightheaded from this treatment, I think I’ll set up a signup for rides to all 8 visits, one every 2 weeks. I’ll post here when I get that going and when I set up more meal dates. Thank you all for the offers of help!  I may need to ask someone soon to come over and keep me company while sorting those bills and/or doing some more general purging.  I’ll never have a Diane-Keaton-in-The-Hamptons home but I could do better. 😬