Cycle 2 Day 1

I'm having a good week so far. Since I finished my antibiotics my nausea has been better and I've enjoyed a day or two with very little upset stomach. My sister Ruth-Ann also decided to spend her only week of holidays this summer with her sickly brother. I'm actually not that sickly right now but her visit was originally planned for her to be here during my bad week, the last day or so of chemo week and the days following. But because chemo was pushed back a week we will have a nicer visit instead. So she got in on Monday morning and heads home on Friday evening.

Today is day 1 of cycle 2 so as I write this I'm getting my nausea drugs pumped into me before they pump in the poison. The good news is that they are pumping them in via my brand new picc line. I'm going to describe that for anyone who might be interested. If you have a weak stomach you should skip to the next paragraph."PICC" stands for "peripherally inserted central catheter". Again, the advantage of a picc is that they put it in once and then all my chemo and blood work goes through that, no more needle pokes, etc. I showed up yesterday morning and the first thing they did was give me an ativan (anxiety pill) to take the edge off because they know I'm not so good with the needles. Then once that had taken effect they brought me back and I got changed into a gown and lied down on a gurney. Then the nurse used an ultrasound machine to find one of the two major veins running through my upper arm. Once she found it she marked marked the spot with a straw. That's right, she used a drinking straw to make a circle on the surface of my skin. Pretty low tech but because of the ultrasound gel, markers don't work. Then the nurse injected some anesthetic to freeze my arm. Once that had taken effect she inserted a needle and fed a tube into the vein all the way around my shoulder, across my chest and down to where the vein meets my heart. Pretty cool. They had pre-measured how long that distance was using a measuring tape like a tailor but only an x-ray can tell if they got it right. They have a window of about an inch or so. It can't be too close or too far from the heart. So I got an x-ray which showed it was exactly where is was supposed to be. The whole process of having a 43 cm tube put in my body wasn't that bad at all. The only thing I felt was the needle prick from the freezing which was no worse than the other 50 needle pokes I've had in the last month.

After the picc I had an appointment with my oncologist. We talked about all the changes they had planned for this cycle which will hopefully keep me from getting severe nausea and dehydration. I get a new pill to take on chemo days which is upwards of $100 a shot. Only those who will really benefit from this drug get it and thankfully I've been deemed worthy. Plus I get the new nausea drugs which were added at the end of last cycle. I will also be getting fluid by IV on days 4, 5, 6 and 7 so that should help. And on days 9 and 16 when I've been getting the headaches and fever/chills they're going to add a strong steroid to help with those side effects. And lastly, so I hopefully don't end up in the hospital again, I will be getting neupogen injections over 5 days following my chemo week to help my bone marrow pump out white blood cells. These $1400.00 injections are luckily covered by Pharmacare but bring with them their own side effects: low grade fever, bone pain, etc. And the best part is that Adrienne has to give them to me at home. Just one more thing Adrienne will do for me during all of this. In sickness and in health right? I don't think Adrienne realized there would be so much sickness when she bought a ticket on the Patty train 4 years. Thank you wife!

That's enough rambling for now. Thanks again for the calls, cards, texts, emails, facebook  messages, and blog comments. I've received a ton and responded to very few. My goal is to get back to everyone when this is over.