Chemo Number 1

So it all begins again. Arrived at the Spire at 9.00 a.m.and apparently my port is so neat and tidy and is healing well. I was a wee bit anxious about it and the hook up process but they used emla cream to numb the area a bit and it wasn’t that bad at all. There is a little swelling still and you can see the lump of the port under my skin but it is a small price to pay to administer the drugs with ease and it helps save my veins!

I have been lucky with everything so far really – everything has gone smoothly and without too much pain or discomfort and the only real setback was my infection which delayed the initial port placement but it has all worked out in the end.

So I am all hooked up and ready to go. They used a needle to insert into it under the skin into the port to administer the drugs. It wasn’t painful or sore just a little bit achy if I am honest but it seems fine. I am having 3 separate drugs and each will take about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours to administer for this first time. If all goes well they should be able to do following infusions in about half the time. I have to stay for a total of 6 hours today to make sure that I don’t have a reaction to any of the drugs. One and a half hours in and so far so good.

 Why is it that they always seem to omit one little bit of information?! I have to self-inject tomorrow an injection to promote my bone marrow to produce white blood cells to help when they take a dip because of my chemo which will hopefully help me stay free of illness and infection.  It’s only one injection and I did have to do this last time (although it was a week of injections then!) so I’m getting off lightly! – just another thing to do!

The nurses Aly and Joanna are lovely and looked after me very well. They really seemed to care. The drug infusions went well and thankfully I have had no reaction or no side effects so far and I got home about 4pm.

It has been a long day and I am now quite tired! I didn’t really sleep very well and the days events are now catching up with me. The family stayed with me in shifts to keep me company, fed and watered!! Got my next session booked in and now I can rest for a while as the appointments are calming down.

So this first set of chemo treatment involves 6 cycles every three weeks. Fingers crossed they will all go smoothly and I will continue to stay and feel well as I do tonight.

‘Being positive doesn’t come from doing well; Doing well comes from being positive.’