Hardest thing from day one? My neck and shoulder are sore from the port placement. Kind of walking around like lurch with a separated shoulder and a stiff neck, fitting for Halloween.
The day started out with me sleeping through my 5am "last chance for solid food" alarm. No big deal but the stomach was definitely making noises. Had to be down at SCCA at 11:30am so no worries on traffic. Port placement went as planned and I was awake but sedated for the whole 90 minute procedure. Got to meet with my medical team one last time before we started the first dose. I'm really pleased with the team I have up here. The main doctor is fairly young and definitely an ambitious guy. He informed me today that he is already working with a surgical team to work on my case when we are done with the chemo. My nurse has done a great job on making sure we have all the information needed and that I'm comfortable and ready for this journey. After the consult we went up to the infusion floor. Unluckily, after arriving the nurse there discovered I was missing a couple labs from my blood work. With my new port, giving blood takes no time at all but we did have to wait about an hour and a half for results. Luckily, I get a private room that is spacious enough for a couple visitors, equipped with a TV, and a well stocked snackroom with all kinds of treats and drinks just down the hall. Mom is with me this week so we sampled some of the snacks while we were waiting. Turns out the Methotrexate only takes about 5 minutes to administer so once the lab results came in we were pretty much outta there. All in all about 7 hours at SCCA.
Back at Richard and Anna's mom and I arrived just in time for a tasty dinner. Chemo so far is not affecting much of anything, although they did say that was the easy drug. Nephew Will entertained us all as he showed us his new trick of blowing raspberries, for about 10 minutes. It was quite funny and I think he is starting to understand he can get a reaction from doing it, especially when he does it with a mouth full of food onto mommy :-)
Tomorrow is going to be long and we get the heavy hitting drugs. I'm scheduled for a full 10 hours. Should still be feeling good as they say it sometimes waits a couple days to hit ya. I'll keep ya posted.
Love the update, Phil. Did you dress up for your first day of chemo since it was Halloween?
ReplyDeleteMakes me happy to hear that you have a go-getter for a doctor! And hooray for good nurses too. One day down, one day at a time, you can do this. Hugs from all of us. :)
ReplyDeleteNo Michele, I was lame and didn't dress up. However nearly all the staff was and they even had kids trick or treating.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear day one went ok. One day at a time and soon you'll be back and kicking it.
ReplyDeleteComments need a "like" button!
ReplyDeleteHey Phillip - sounds like you have a great team around you, doctors and family alike! We miss you here at HP, but we are rooting for you! Glad you like the tablet!
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