Date with a Space(wo)man: CHEMO Day #1

Wahoo! We made it through our 1st Chemo Treatment with flying colors!

Brett joined me for this first one. We had to report to the hospital at 9 am. I figured it'd be good for him to see what happens so he can practice his manly sympathetic skills later. We both dressed up for the occasion. Are you at all surprised? Being fashionably festive runs in our veins, I guess! LOL  I almost even wore my big pink floppy hat but didn't want to scare the Chemo Nurses too much the first day! But I do look darn cute in it. Thanks Robbie! Besides--- from being a little nervous anyways and the fact that some of the pre-meds turned my cheeks a nice shade of my shirt color- I was pretty much embracing the "pink side" completely today! Go PINK!

My Chemo Nurse for the day was Katie B. She was the BEST! She is a funny, color-coordinated (wahoo, my kinda girl!), darling lady! We were so lucky to have her. We even invited her to our blog so she can check up on us. Thanks Katie! You'll never know how much we appreciate you!

Nurse Katie was very helpful in explaining what would be happening today. She printed me off sheets which she color-coordinated as pre-meds (pink) and chemo drugs (yellow). [I had to laugh because if you've seen my sock drawer you'll understand why I told her we were destined to be together! LOL] The sheets included info on what each drug was for and the long, long lists of side-effects. Oh joy!
Just for information sake here's all the drugs I got pumped up with today-
Pre-meds included
* 15 minute infusion of  Dexamenthasone- to prevent allergic reactions, prevent nausea and vomiting, increase appetite, and to reduce swelling.
* IV push of Liquid Benadryl- to prevent allergic reactions, It was funny because it took like 30 seconds for it to hit my brain. I was so drowsy for about 15 minutes but then I could function again.
* 15 minute IV push of Zantac- a H2 Blocker. Dont' know what that is exactly but who cares at this point? LOL
* IV Push of  Palonosetron- an anti-nausea medicine. If vomit at all- I'm gonna be really ticked!
Chemo Drugs included-
* 1 hour infusion of Cyclophosphamide- an alkylating agent to help stop cancer cells from growing, causing them to die! This is the one that lowers my white blood cells count, makes me tired and will most likely be to thank for me being follically challenged. LOL
* Between each infusion, they do a 10 minutes saline flush to clean the drug out of the tubes.
* 1 hour infusion of Docetaxel- a drug known as a taxane. It interferes with microtubules that help to kill cancer cells. This one does the same stuff as the other but also can lower your red blood cell count as well and cause some swelling.
* Another saline flush and then onto our last drug for the day!
* 1 hour 30 minute IV push of Herceptin- a man-made monoclonal anti-body that acts as a lock and key to attack the HER2 receptors that are present in my cancer. This the one that I will have to continue every three weeks for 1 year. Bummer!

Your 1st Chemo day is always the longest because they do the "drip" on super turtle slow to make sure you have no allergic reactions. Katie did an amazing job on my IV. You can hardly  even see where she put it in. Since I am so predominately a Righty, we decided to do it in my left hand just in case- you know, my arm swelled or fell off or something. LOL! It'd be a bummer to have to learn to do everything left handed AND deal with the Chemo side effects as well.
We got a good chuckle out of Katie's Space(wo)man Attire when she handled the actual chemo drugs. She got all dressed up and even double gloved to hook the bag of chemo up to my IV. We had shared our chemo class experience with her so she caught on fast to our "You'll be fine!" joke. It was hilarious!

One of the social workers, Kate stopped by to check on us. She was so kind. It was fun because she remembered Brett & I from the very first day we came to the Roger Maris Cancer Center. Her and the other social worker were walking back from the cafeteria and led us through the labyrinth hallways to the RMCC. She had brought us lots of information about support groups and wigs and stuff. Most of which I have already looked into. What can I say... I'm a planner!

Another few other funny stories.
* First, Nurse Katie had told me that the first time I needed to use the restroom to ask so that they could show me how to unplug myself from the wall and wheel the machine down the hall. Well when it came time for my 1st potty break, Katie was busy so the desk nurse came into see what we needed. I asked her if she could show me how to use the bathroom. Oops! LOL I meant help me get to the bathroom. But the damage was done! It turned into our own little personal joke. When we left for the day, I gave her a hug and told her thanks for teaching me how to go potty! We got a good laugh from it. I'm telling you I'm just so funny! LOL
* Next, the scheduling Nurse, Tia stopped by for a visit and to set up my next Space(wo)ma Date. We had a good laugh because she had been the one that called me the day I had my IUD out. She distinctly remembered our "explicit conversation" on the phone. I'm quite the memorable person around here, I guess! LOL
* Finally- After one of my potty breaks and plugging myself back into the wall, I noticed that the machine said- "PUMPING STOPPED". I pushed my call button to have them help me out. Heaven knows I didn't want to spend my day there with no drip happening. She came in and said that everything looked fine. I was confused and asked why it would say it was stopped then. She looked back at me even more confused and said that it was pumping like it should. It was then that I pointed to the screen to make my point. Here's what I showed her:

Turns out that the little line between the "Pumping" & the "Stopped" are for different tubes- Tube A was pumping and Tube B was stopped. She thought it was pretty funny because she had never read it straight across before now. Funny how you can train yourself to see the world in a certain way. Luckily for me- they know what they're doing and the drip was working properly even if I can't read "ChemoMachine-ese".

I felt like the day went by really fast! I had no allergic reactions at all. Wahoo! What a blessing! I'm sure that was a direct answer to tons of prayers and a blessing I got from my dear hubby and Brother Larsen. Thank you!
Brett and I spent the morning, eating snacks, watching part of a movie, joking with the nurses and having lunch. Liberty had a musical today at school so Brett took off after lunch to go support her. You'll have to check out her performance stuff on the other blog. Sorry I missed it, Chicka!
When Brett left, my good friend, Katie Gill came up to hang with me for the afternoon. My Life Coordinator (KBro) was afraid I might get molested if I was left alone. She is always looking out for me! I'm so lucky! LOL We laughed because it turned out to be quite a hostile takeover of the KATIE(or Kate)s today! Friend Katie and I ended up spending the afternoon snacking, trying to watch part of a movie and talking about things that bug us. It was great to have her up. Thanks lady for being with me! You're awesome!

What a busy day! We finally left the hospital around 4 pm. We really couldn't ask for a more perfect 1st Chemo day! We feel so blessed!  Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers on our behalf. We can definitely feel them working in our Adventure. Whew! One thing down... two more to go! Now we're off to the kids Piano Recital and the Scout Spaghetti Fundraiser. Oh but that's part of our real life so you'll have to check out Our ParTay Called Life for that stuff.