#8 Chemo kicks off....the unknown
1st Round of Chemo
Sonya M.
3 min read
First up, the picture is a stock photo because if I popped in an actual photo of what I was receiving I know someone who would be fiercely Googling and might slip up and share details with me.
Now onto my first round of Chemo. This was a total unknown, I didn't read up about it at all and went in just to receive whatever was coming.
I was a bit nervous but not about the chemo about where I had to go, making sure I was on time. So I read the sign - go to desk and let them know I was there. The lovely lady who greeted me took my details and said with a smile "you're in the queue". I thanked her and we went and sat down and waited. I was a half hour early so I was feeling completely relaxed until I noticed others coming in, going to the front desk and then going in the elevator. It was 11.45pm and I was booked in at 12 noon. I decided to head back over to the desk and asked did I remain here or go somewhere else as it was my first time. Straight away I got directions to the Chemo unit and we were on our way immediately.
We again sat and waited and just after 12pm I was called in. The nurse assigned to me got me on the scales - that in itself nearly made me cry when the weight come back, some things will remain undisclosed lol. She asked me how I was feeling and I said "ready to get this done" and I absolutely loved her reply "f%ck yeah!" and I knew we were going to get along just great.
Being the first round there were questions to be answered, information to be given, to let her know if I experienced feeling anything etc. I did have a weird feeling occur and it was unusual, my left shoulder and top of left arm felt like they were going numb, like when your foot of something goes to sleep and we weren't sure if it was positional because I had been sitting for so long or if it was from the chemo. It didn't matter, something was unusual and we stopped treatment and waited for a doctor. My nurse said it shouldn't be long but they needed to be sure I wasn't going to stroke. Well there's a reassuring thought and I immediately said, "too much information" lol. As it turned out, I would have guessed from the tests the doctor did. Smile, raise my eyebrows, squeeze hands, resist, push. It was quite the workout. Anyway, got the all clear and we started treatment again. So instead of a 2 hour session it turned into 4 and a half hours.
The next day we had the reminders set as I need to self-inject something which will promote white blood cell growth. For those that may not know, white blood cells are essential parts of our immune system and produced in the bone marrow [see, learning... ] The injection can produce bone pain as a result of the bone marrow being stimulated to work hard to produce more white blood cells. Thankfully I didn't experience that, well I may have but I will have to wait to speak to my oncologist about it. Based on the information I do have, it is possible that on the long weekend I did have it and if that's what it was.....O M G!! Pain was off the charts but more on that to come.
For me it was the intense body fatigue which arrived on the Monday and stayed until Tuesday night. Again I went to the resources I was given and thankfully it said that it normally peaks on the 3rd or 4th day. Well Tuesday was day number 4 so I was running with that. So during those 2 days I worked from home, taking regular breaks. Wednesday morning I woke up and my energy levels were sooooo much better and I was up and off to work [at home] for the rest of the week.