First day of Chemo

So I arrived at the hospital at 8:30am yesterday with my best friend, Marianne. They gave me a bag of IV, so yes, I lost my 'port-a-cath virginity' yesterday. It didn't hurt as much as I thought considering the area is still very tender from getting it put in only two days prior. I woke up yesterday morning and the port healed so much in that one night, it was unbelievable! I am able to sleep on my side now with care and move my neck freely now. Thank God that's over!

My chemo starts with 3 cycles of FEC 100 followed by 3 cycles of Taxotere. Each cycle is once every 3 weeks. One cycle of FEC 100 consists of one bag of pre-meds to help with the nausea. I had a smaller bag drip over a 30 min. span, a larger bag drip over an hour span and 3 sringes injected over a couple of minutes. The sringes are supposed to make my urine red...but in actuality it was more like, "Mango Madness". Haha! I'm a part-time photographer and wish I had brought my camera to take a picture of this since I have a picture of my blue pee from the sentinal node biopsy! LOL! Maybe next time.

The nurses were great, and once again, my first day wasn't even close to how bad as I thought it would be. Come to think of it, it was actually a very good day. Being w/my best friend who played my "chemo buddy" yesterday it felt as if we were just having girl talk and quality time, but in a hospital.

I was released from the hospital at 3pm (it took the porters a while to bring down my chemo). I went to the mall and saw my hairdresser and told him to chop my hair even shorter. I have such thick hair and it was too "POOFY" for my liking. I bought 2 hats and my friend bought me one, then the nausea slowly started to creep in. This all started about an hour after I was released from the hospital. My friend and I tried to find the nearest cab to go home. I knew the nausea kicked in when we passed "Kernals" and the smell of the popcorn almost made me vomit right there and then!

I ate a drumstick and lots of bread for dinner, took a nausea pill and drank tons of fluids. The nausea pill knocked me out, like Gravol would so I woke up an hour later and was able to catch the season premiere of Survivor. During Survivor the nausea was creeping up again, but stronger...I threw up twice. :(

LESSON: Don't have orange juice when nauseated!

I went to bed at around 10:30pm after taking another (stronger) nausea pill (I have three kinds) and here I am this morning. I feel alright...not too much nausea, but a little headache that's tolerable.


I'll let you know how day two goes.

Zuni (aka Jenny)

P.S. Waking up with BED HEAD is soooo funny!
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"LiVe LiFe aS aN eXcLaMatIoN, nOt aN eXpLaNaTioN!"