Okay, so I promise this time I didn’t forget about my blog. This time I actually have an excuse. My excuse is chemotherapy. It has drained me completely of all my energy and I just never feel good enough to sit down and type. I might keep this post short, because after typing a few sentences, I’m already tired. You might think I’m exaggerating, but I’m being serious…the war against chemo is a hard one.
I went inpatient the night of August 27th to start my first round of chemo. You actually go inpatient a night before chemo to start up on IV fluids. With chemo, your body has to be extra hydrated so the drugs do not kill you. Scary stuff huh? After a full night of hydration, nurses pop in your room super early to give you chemo. My chemo isn’t too complicated. It comes in big IV fluid bags or syringes and gets connected to my line. First day, I got a drug called “Cisplatin” which came covered in a big brown paper bag. Apparently this drug is light sensitive, so they closed all the blinds and then hooked me up. The infusion of this drug lasts 6 hours. Chemo does not hurt or sting when it is going in. You do begin to feel tired and like sick after a couple of hours.
After getting “Cisplatin”, I got another chemo drug called “Vincristine.” Vincristine comes in a large syringe and is pushed through the line. In less than 5 seconds it’s all in. Didn’t feel much with the vincristine either. Maybe a little nauseous…but nothing terrible.
Day 2 and 3, I got my third drug called “cyclophosphamide.” The infusion of cyclophosphamide takes an hour. Finally, after 3 nasty drugs getting injected into my body, I could consider myself close to being done. Luckily for me I did not have any major side effects with the chemo. I did not have any throw-up, but I do remember complaining of headaches and stomachaches. I also had many of the multiple temporary side effects, which I won’t mention because it’s TMI. I felt fortunate to not feel extremely sick, but in my later posts I’ll explain to you how the after chemo effects almost killed me.
Day 4 no chemo is given. Your body is given 24 hours to rest and recover for day 5. On day 5, I received the stem-cells that were collected back in May. If you’ve been keeping up with my blog, I’m sure you remember when I mentioned my long 8-hour collection of stem-cells.
The stem cell infusion was kind of a weird process. I had a little old lady walk in with a cart carrying a big pot and microwave looking machine. She came in and said, “Girl, I got your stem-cells…” I glanced over to the cart and saw the huge pot smoking. I felt like asking, “Are you planning on cooking me for dinner or something?” She put on some thick blue gloves and reached into the smoking cold pot and pulled out a bag of blood products. What I didn’t know was that my stem cells were frozen in liquid nitrogen and that’s why they were smoking. Lol! Hey! How am I supposed to know this stuff? After taking it out of the pot she stuck in this microwave to thaw for like 30 seconds. Then, with a large syringe they pulled out the cells from the bag and pushed them into my line.
The cells were still very cold, so when I was getting them pushed into my body I got very bad chills. I had like 8 nurses around me at this time in case of any sudden reaction. Fortunately, my body had no reaction when receiving it’s own cells. After the stem cell injection, I got to go home! I WAS DONE!
I left the hospital feeling tired and weak, but with no nausea…Thank God! Unfortunately, I couldn’t get rid of the upset stomach, headache, and backache that had me glued to the bed for the next 3 days. I would love to go into my hospitalization that I had 3 days after chemo, but I just realized this post is getting longer than imagined. I promise to post about it soon!
I apologize about this post being so blah and boring…Not very interesting, but honestly I don’t remember much about my chemo days. (I think this is a good thing) Most people don't like to remember how rough chemo is on the human body. Everything I’ve told you have been small bits that I remember of the cloudy dream that I was in for 5 days. I was there, I was living it, it was real, but I just don’t remember much. Mom says it was a pretty rough 5 days, but in my dream, it all seemed okay. Thank you God for giving me the strength to make it through my first chemo! Please continue with the blessings.
Second round of chemo will start Sept. 23rd!
*P.S. It took me all day to write this post lol!
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