the countdown begins

good news today- i got my CT results, and all is well :) no surprises/changes since my last one. yay! i also was able to start chemo, so while i really, really am not looking forward to starting this again, at least i'm on my last leg now. officially. 1 down, 11 to go.

when you get chemo, they administer a bunch of pre-meds to help your body process the toxins better/more easily. my pre-meds include an anti-nausea (zofran), a steroid (to make the zofran work better), benedryl (to combat a possible allergic reaction to the drug), and pepcid (also to combat an allergic reaction). the pre-meds take about 15 minutes to administer, and are hung on the iv pole and go through my port. just like my chemo. the chemo (taxol) takes about 90 minutes to administer. so overall, i'll be in the chair for about 2 hours each week. i will also have labs drawn each week to monitor my blood counts, so i'll get to the hospital at 3:30pm, hopefully start chemo around 4:30pm (though they're typically backed up and running late- over an hour today!), and get done around 6:30pm. that should get me home in time to help with bedtime.

somehow i managed to block out that i had benedryl administered through my iv when i was in the hospital with my infection and had a bad reaction to it- got all loopy/high and slept for 4 hours straight in the middle of the day. they gave me the benedryl in my pre-meds today and the same thing happened. only i didn't go to sleep, cuz i had to drive home and stuff. i was so high i had to stay an extra hour getting saline pumped in me to try and sober me up. ugh. not sure what we're going to do to fix this problem. perhaps lower the dosage... perhaps take it orally because that doesn't have the same effect on me. gotta talk to my doc about that.

so, i'm home now, and have had dinner. i went to the hospital at 10am, and didn't get home till 4:30pm. i was scheduled for 10am with my oncologist, and 11am for my chemo. i didn't even get to chemo till quarter to 12, and then didn't get a chair till 1pm. and i only got it then because heather (my friend/neighbor/chemo nurse) worked some magic and got me in. timeliness is not their best quality. but everyone there is so nice, and i always bring a book with me, so at least i have some nice reading time :) in any event, i'm resting at home while kj has the girls out at a park since i'm still useless from my benedryl experience. the good news is that i didn't have an allergic reaction to the taxol, so i can continue my treatments as planned.

okay, 1 down, 11 to go. and they promised me that this will not be as hard as the last round. i'm holding them to that!