Chemo cycle 1 day 1

(photos at end of post)

Yesterday morning was the start of my first Chemo cycle. Overall, it went well thanks to preventative things they put in my iv. One was a steroid - I'm assuming to prevent inflammation for starters. This made me super hyper. I was working on my son's three year report (triennial) for the first part no problem-- until they put in the benadryl. All of a sudden I started slurring up a storm then I passed out. Good stuff, I guess. That is until I woke up with intense sharp pain in my arm. I guess the stuff, mixed with my Chemo first drug called taxotere (which runs one and a half hour) either directly or indirectly caused my vein to spasm then stop working. Painful. They tried flushing the vein without success. So they then had to resort relocating the iv to the center of my inner elbow -- which meant I could no longer bend my arm. At that point they started my second chemo drug, CT, which lasts about 1 hour. This is then followed by about 30 minutes of extra iv. Luckily, since I was up, I turned to my IPad Kindle ap and did some reading for the rest of the time (at least until my head starting hurting). Again, the solution was rest and more meds.

This first chemo session started a little after 930am. It ended at 430pm. I then got to go home. Actually, first we stopped off at a local Sprouts health market to pick up missing food items. In particular, I wanted organic, free-range chicken to make bone broth. I read this will help with bone pain that I'll feel roughly two days after my session today. Today I go back for iv treatment that includes a medication that will boost my white blood cell count. Mine is already pretty low so this will help. The price will potentially be debilitating bone pain as a worst case scenario like a woman sitting next to me in the chemo room who is also on my same cocktail of taxotere and ct. I'm ready either way but always staying hopeful. And if it happens to hit hard then hopefully mine will be short (like two days).

Yesterday I met a few women in the Chemo room and we swapped war stories. The woman next to me was about my age -- there for her third time. She's the one on my same cocktail of taxotere and ct. For her, said her symptoms were mild from day 1-day 3 (everything in our life now is counted in cycles of 21 days. Day 1 is Chemo day. Day 2 is the next day. Etc). She even went to work from day 2-3. Then her bone pain hit on day 4. It lasted 4 days for her in the first cycle of Chemo. The second cycle of Chemo it started around the same time - but lasted 7 days! She didn't work on these days. As for other symptoms, for her, she said it's been like a combined nasty flu with the muscle soreness after an intense workout. I asked her if she tried bone broth for the pain. She didn't know about this. I'm hoping it works for the both of us. She's also not on any paleo diet. I think bad food can be a contributor to additional pain due to inflammation it causes. It's my hunch but there's a lot of science behind it. It's also my hope.

The way I explained Chemo to my son is that they infused meds into my system through an iv. These meds sometimes start in groups; then the chemo drugs are back to back. These meds are like good pirates on some ships being sent out into my ocean of blood. They will eventually do some good deeds. Along with these meds pumped in there are some bad pirates -- sailing about ready to disembark on their first target island and cause some major battles and pillaging of innocent bystanders. Currently both good pirates and bad pirates are sailing around my bloody ocean so I'm not feeling horrible just yet. They're roaming; some pains a long the way are premature small attacks that don't amount in a long time. Currently, though, I'm loading up my artillery (good juicing, foods, lots of water, sleep, reading up on cancer and nutrition, and walking exercise) to get ready for any potential big battles. I want to be ready to take on those bad pirates if and when they come. He got this -- and I think listening Grandma, who came down yesterday, got this, too.

So I'm ready for today. So far it's starting more calm than yesterday. Mostly this is because yesterday was an earlier day compared to today's 1:30 session which will last roughly 90 minutes without complications. Then I go in next door for reconstruction injection part 2. For this they inject 50cc of saline solution into my pec muscle which then hits a balloon behind it. This balloon has a magnetic valve which they find by moving a magnet on my pec wall to find the valve. They then mark it with a permanent marker. That's where they inject. If I spasm, I get Valium. So in some ways today might be harder than yesterday. But hopefully not!

Thank you for prayers and for keeping me in your thoughts!

My station ready and chemo starting:

frequent trips to bathroom (because I was being a good girl and by staying hydrated -- I drank 64 oz of water plus 32 oz of green juice I made prior to trip. I also brushed and washed after each snack and meal):

Changing IV position...not fun but over with quickly: