Chemo day #1

Well it all began today. I got to the hospital at 9:30 am. After the initial regular check in stuff the nurse went to access my port. They said that there is not to many nerves in the skin in that area, while that may be true, when you are accessing it with a framing nail it hurts. I got the numbing cream for next time so hopefully that will make it feel better. After the needle was in she flush the port to clean it then tried to draw blood. She was unsuccesfull so we hooked me up to an IV bag to see if we could flush it. In the mean time she had to draw the blood out of my arm so we could get my blood tested to make sure all of my levels were ok to get the treatment today. The Port never would draw so they sent me downstairs to run some dye through it to make sure there was no problem with the placement. I was told that I must have a good immune system because it had formed a clot and basically turned it into a one way valve. So it works to put stuff in but At this point it looks like we wont be able to make draws. (what was the point of the port again:))

Since the Dr. gave it the OK we went in and did the drug treatment. The nurse gave me some pre-drugs (pain, nausea, ...) then the 4 chemo drugs. I actually fell asleep for about an hour during the treatment. I got wrapped up around 3:30pm just in time for Mom, Dad, and the kids(Shelly had been hanging around and supporting me all day) to stop by. I really wanted the kids to see me with the line in and to see that it didn't hurt me. So the nurse did the final flush and disconnected everything. By far the most painfully part of the day was removing the tape on my chest. I think that she removed about half of my chest hair at the same time. I will definitely shave that part of my chest before the next treatment.

Since I got released I have felt pretty good. I feel a little floaty like I took a bunch of cough medicine and my stomach feels like it is a little upset but really nothing major today. We will see how I feel tomorrow. I have been told day 2 and 3 are the worst.

Burke