Chemo #2

I had my second round of chemo today. 

The doctor said I'm doing GREAT! He even seemed a little shocked at how well I'm doing. So that's good! That's great!!

The Nurse Practitioner, who suggested cutting my hair this past weekend, said my hair looks really, really good and that it might fall out slower because it doesn't have the weight of long hair. Interesting... it's still going to fall out in the next week or two.

Actually, I've had a lot of people suggest I keep this style for a while after it grows back in. Gives me hope, haha. :)

So today...

We got there at 1150 for our noon appointment. Went back at noon and checked vitals. Then we waited for a room to open up. Then we met with the doctor. The goal this time is to use the anti-nausea meds less. See how that affects me. But he said I was doing really well, my lungs are clear, the tumor is already going away (you can't feel it as much in my neck - how crazy is that?!!), everything looks good.

And then I went into a "chemo chair" and got started. The port-a-cath is actually a nice thing. I don't love it, but it's nice because I can do so many things during my treatment since it's going into my chest and not my arm. It might be sitting on a nerve, which causes random pangs of pain, but nothing major. Actually, I still think it's totally weird. When I accidentally run my fingers over it and feel the three bumps, it's just totally weird. Totally weird. Because I don't feel my body, I feel my skin and three bumps. haha. :) It's just weird. But good.

So my treatment took about 2 1/2 hours, give or take. And it always makes me pee A TON at the end. After they give me the one that makes my pee turn red, I have to practically run to the bathroom. And then as soon as my treatments are done, I feel like I'm racing death or an exploding bladder to the bathroom. And then I bloat and look like I'm going to have a chemo baby while my body absorbs all the fluids that have been pumped into me for the last 2 1/2 hours.

I'm supposed to drink 4 quarts of fluid a day. I think it's 4 quarts. Basically a gallon. I swear.... one more way that cancer is like pregnancy. Well, I'm really bad at drinking fluids. But I MUST do this because chemo drugs tend to sit in  your kidneys, so you need the fluids to flush them out and not fry your kidneys. That is a good enough reason for me to push myself to drink like a camel.

Do camels drink a lot?

I'm still really bad at getting enough, but I'm going to try better this week. I got some more Gatorade today on the way home and we have milk and lemonade powder and ginger ale. The funny thing is, I can drink anything, I just need to drink! I never thought I'd have a doctor encourage me to drink whatever I want - like Coke - just so that I'll drink, haha. :) But yeah... so that's a challenge for me, but I'm working on it. I want to save my kidneys. :)

When I was done, and done releasing fluid fury in the bathroom (boy, that sounds gross. hahahaha), we left and stopped at the store to get the aforementioned goodies and a couple of other things. Then we went home and I had to pee again right away. I'm tellin' ya... chemo baby on the way!

Almost as soon as I was done with chemo (or maybe it's just because I was now standing up and walking around), I started to get loopey and REALLY tired. Just kind of shifty and sleepy. I hardly had the energy to text my friend to tell her I was done and she could bring the kids back. So I put the comfy clothes on and crashed on the couch for an hour. Thank heavens for an amazing friend who picked the kids up AND brought them back. Holy amazing, that Ashley is. And I'm kind of grateful she doesn't live just around the corner because I got to sleep this afternoon and I SO needed it. I've had just enough energy to get dinner and take care of the kids. Tender mercy. :)

All in all, my chemo appointment took 3 1/2 - 4 hours today. It took an hour before I was sitting down and getting the drugs started. And there's also a small gap between each drug. And I can take the saline and the heparin they use to flush the line and the stuff they use to keep it from clotting. And then I needed an hour power nap to sleep some of those drugs off before I was able to be a human being again.

I'm glad I had my hubby with me today. And that he got us lunch and got me a slush during Happy Hour at Sonic. :) I love having my best friend around, even if we mostly just hang out next to each other. He's totally a keeper and the best guy for me. And he's funny - he weighed himself at the dr's office today and totally flipped out like a girl. It's pretty amusing. He said he's going to go back on a diet. Love him. LOVE HIM.

Here's to Chemo Week #2! As my big brother, Tyler said, we got this!