Chemo 101

Let’s talk chemo…shall we? I know it’s just what you’ve been waiting for – a lesson on Chemotherapy! Since many are not familiar with the process and I hope you never get to find out, I thought I’d make this post a bit more on the educational side.

First off, I’m feeling pretty decent. No sickness or nausea to speak of yet. I’ve been pumping vitamins, juices, protein, etc. which may be helping me feel ok. I also slept more the first 4 nights than I have since college. The medication that I took days 1-4 at bedtime is Olanzapine and it KNOCKED ME OUT. I literally was asleep within 30 mins and out for 10+ hours. Sunday night was the last dose until my next round of chemo.

To recap our first “chemo day” – it had a slight Dene’ comedy act spin. First, the kids are off school due to the weather and having them home on “chemo day” threw me off a hair. We get out of the house a little late and arrive to a line of several folks checking in for their appointments which made us even later for ours. Turns out that wasn’t a big deal because I was meeting with doc briefly before the session started anyway. I’m put in one of the patient rooms and while waiting I recall I need to put lidocaine on my port to numb it a bit which helps lesson the poke when they plug in to my port. Well, of course I forgot the lidocaine at home? With this being my first time & having no clue what to expect, we quickly call Maria to bring the stuff to us so I can numb the port…god forbid I actually feel any pain during this process. That statement alone makes me laugh since I’ve dealt with a ton of pain over the past few months/years and NUMBING THE PORT became that mornings 911 event…Really? Maria arrived in the nick of time, lidocaine goes on the port, IV gets plugged into port and we are off to the races.

The type of chemo regimen I’m on is AC-T Chemotherapy. The A is for Adriamycin, C is cyclophosphamide and T is Toxal. I receive AC for 4 treatments and Toxal for 12. Which puts me at planning the “end of chemo party” around the first day of summer.

As a quick reminder to those just now tuning in – I am doing chemo as a preventative to keep this evil disease from coming back EVER again. All cancer was removed with clean margins during surgery, but my Oncotype test score was high, therefore chemo was recommended. The chemo drugs interfere with how cancer cells develop and grow. It works by stopping the cancer cells from dividing and multiplying, which blocks the growth of the cancer. This is the answer to the question of why I’m getting chemo to begin with if my cancer was already cut out. Again, its preventative.

Back to chemo day…After tapping into my port, the First bag is saline, second is an anti-nausea med, third comes the “Red Devil” (Adriamycin) finished off by cyclophosphamide. Did I lose you at Red Devil? Well it’s called that because it’s the strong stuff and it’s red, literally. It is fed through the IV by the nurse over @10mins. During that time I need to be eating ice chips or a popsicle or it will wreak havoc on the inside of my mouth leaving sores & such. Of course I chose popsicle…finished off 3 of ’em while reminiscing my youth.

Honestly, the entire thing wasn’t so bad and the time seemed to pass quickly. Now at day 5 post-chemo, the side-effects aren’t bad either. I had major dry mouth for a few days, but using a special mouthwash (Biotene) helped. I’ve felt dizzy a couple times and of course there was some fatigue. Outside of that, I’m fab. I’ve been told it will get worse with each treatment so I’m enjoying these days of “normalcy” while I can.

I’ve been working this week playing catch up, but did enjoy a nice long lunch break with Gina & Julia at school. Julia’s lunch visit was first and was full of cuteness! She forgot I was bringing lunch, therefore ended up with the school hot lunch and Wendy’s. Apparently this meant the rest of her food was fair game to those interested at the table. Fries, fruit snacks, and the like were shared. They talked Pennie wars, school store, some about the sports they played, and somehow we got on the topic of the length of their hair.

Hair is a popular subject these days, which is a good segue to Gina’s lunch & what made the visit so rewarding. It very simply added confirmation to my decision to blog and wear (almost) every minute of this battle on my sleeve. The conversations that came next with Gina and her friends at the lunch table reminded me why I’ve become a (wanna-be) “blogger”.

First, I was greeted by an adult-like “how was chemo?” from Ruby, followed by a giant hug from Suzie, topped off with a completely open conversation with all 6 girls about my hair or soon-to-be lack of hair. IT WAS GREAT! Seriously! The question & answer session with them all and us laughing about no arm hair or how long my wig will be or if I’ll get crazy wigs. Lydia chiming in with a classic “you should put a lot of mascara on everyday so then your eyelashes would be stuck”. If ever there was a doubt that me putting myself out there via these words in this blog was not the right thing to do…those girls reminded me that it is 100% right! I love that it doesn’t feel taboo to them. We talked about the head shaving “party” and Suzie & I shared in a moment of “nooooo….we don’t want my hair to goooooo” moment. When it was all said and done, ALL of them and a couple from the other lunch table made a point to give me hug as they went off to recess. IT WAS AWESOME! (We chatted so much I forgot to snap a pic)

Yes, the hair shaving par-tay planning is underway. I’m already a bit on the anxious side thinking about shaving my head BUT it’s only hair and what better way to embrace baldness than with friends. I’m beyond excited that one of my BFF’s that I haven’t seen for far to long is coming in town to (potentially) do the honors and work her magic. I think a couple others might join, but I am not sure just yet. One is going to be out of town, so his plan is to have Gina shave his head upon returning next week…thanks Kevin! I really don’t expect anyone to shave their heads, but it is quite the tear-jerker when I think that others would do that for me❤️

***Combining humor, sarcasm and some facts along the way, I hope to help others going through this to laugh & learn during a rough time in life. Feel free to SHARE via your social media accounts or email & follow me on Instagram, Facebook, or twitter.