Day 10-14 Chemo Chemo Chemo Chemo

So where the heck have I been for the last four days?!  Well I have been doing my chemo.  I fully intended to spend that time blogging.  Little did I know the little chemo drip machines do not have very long cords, and it was not very conducive to spending time at my desk.  So for most of the day I spent it in bed.

My daily routine did not change much.  I usually got up at 7 and showered and dressed.  Breakfast arrived around 9am.  Sometimes I ate.  Sometimes I did not.  That is just the way it goes.  I was very good about staying hydrated though.  Wanted to keep those veins open to receive the “good stuff”!  At around 10 o’clock, in rolled an older looking IV pole with places for 4 bottles.  Attached to this unit were two boxes that tubes went through to adjust the flow of the medicine.

Mind you I have four lines sticking out  of my neck.  Wouldn’t it make sense to just get on with this and get it done?  Oh no.  That is not how it is done.  I get hooked up to two bags the first shot.  When those are done, then another bag gets set up and when that is done the last bottle is set in motion.  That last one goes pretty fast.   All in all it lasts about 4-4.5 hours.

After the first day I was pretty tired at that point.  I figured that all those drugs combined with stem cell collection the day before I was pretty spent.  But the  day was not over.  At around 5 in rolled another IV stand with two bottles on it.  Again they did them one at a time.  Went pretty fast and then I was told they would see me again at 10 for my last one!  What?!  So all in all that first day I had 7 infusions.  This went on four days!

The thing about it also is that they keep feeding you.  I was so pumped up on steroids, chemo and all the other fluids, quite frankly there was no hunger or room for food!  They would give you a look, but really can’t they see you are laying there with tubes going into you all day long?  Really who is interested in eating?  Not me.  I did manage to have a little and had some protein shakes the nurses brought in.  I thought that was at least doing my part.

Also, part of full disclosure, getting all that fluid in, remember it also has to come out.  So you do spend quite a bit of time in the bathroom. Seems like every hour at least.  That contributed sleepless nights, and some doozie drug/chemo induced dreams .  They were really quite strange.  I wasn’t sorry to wake from those.  Thankfully those are done along with the chemo.

A new group arrived today and they took our old rooms.  We now have officially moved to the third floor where the isolation rooms are.  Although we are not officially in isolation yet, we will be in a few days.  So I got settled in a bit.  put out what little they will let me keep in here which is not much.

Tomorrow is a BIG DAY for us!  We get our stem cells back!  They have been sitting on ice and being treated to rid them of all the bad B and T cells that might present problems.  But tomorrow they will be thawed and re-infuesed to help build my new immune system.  After they do the re-infusion, there is a little celebration called our new life birthday, and we get to dump out the ice that held our stem cells.  We are all really excited for that one and I will be sure to post pictures and possibly video!