I have had a post sitting in my draft folder for two years. Exactly. On October 26, 2016, I started a post entitled “After the Plunge.”
It was referring to my post from September 27th, “The Precipice”, that I wrote the day before I started chemotherapy for colon cancer.
I had intended to give an update about my first chemotherapy experience but the title was as far as I got. I would like to go back at and share a few of those thoughts now.
So, I have a few images from Chemo #1!
I had a port catheter placed in my chest for administration of the chemo and for blood draws. (You can see the healing cut from the surgery just above my neck line in the photo.) I am planning on doing another post on just that alone.
This was me and my ‘last’ drink with ice. You see, the chemo combination I was going to be getting is called FOLFOX and it consists of FOL- folic acid, F- Flourouracil (5FU), and OX- oxaliplatin. One of the side-effects of oxaliplatin is a ‘sensitivity’ to cold. I can tell you now that by the time I was done with chemo, I had to drink warm water–even room temperature water was too cold.
My mom drove me over because I wasn’t sure how I would react to the chemo and how I would feel immediately after.
I had my soft blanket and I am all hooked up to the I.V. line. The process was a two hour drip of Leucovorin (the folic acid- helps increase the efficacy of the 5FU) and the oxaliplatin. Then, when that finished, they would do an ‘I.V. push’ (a dose injected over 5 minutes or so) of the 5FU. Then came the pump.
This is a picture of my lovely pump. I would go home with this and it would administer the 5FU over the next 44 hours or so. I went in on Wednesdays for my treatments and then back again Friday mornings to get the pump off. It was nice for me that the worst of the side effects would kick in over Saturday and Sunday when I didn’t have to work. It would always make a soft noise, and sometimes would give off loud–and awkward, depending on where I was–beeping alarms if something wasn’t quite right.
I had to carry it around in a fanny pack. It went everywhere with me. The store, teaching class, running kids to school, etc. I was hoping it would start a new fashion trend and everyone else would want to wear one too, but that was not to be. 😀
Funny story about the cold sensitivity:
The evening after my first treatment I had to go teach a lab. I was a little tired, but didn’t really feel any effects yet. The ‘cold sensitivity’ kept running through my mind. And, being a scientist, I decided I had to test the hypothesis.
The drinking fountain in the hall near my classroom wasn’t one of the coldest on campus. I figured I would start with a small drink from that fountain. So I did.
At first I didn’t really feel anything. And then, in my throat, something.
The best way I can think of to describe it is this. You know if you are eating nachos and a tortilla chip gets caught in your throat?
There's Magic in Story, 