Day 1

I had my first round of chemotherapy at the BC Cancer Agency in Kelowna today, and all in all, I think it went fairly smoothly. I’m currently home after a nice Sushi Friday at Ozeki’s (you can’t get more normal than that in the Cole household!) and just tidying up before Erin arrives for a visit.

How did it go? Well, surprising to me, fine. My nurse’s name is Heather and she is really nice and explains everything very well. Typically she said it would take 1.5 hours, but might be a little longer today due to a few situations at the centre…Friday the 13^th is getting the blame for all the complicated cases today ;)

I started with an IV drip and it went through fine – I had to take a needle in the hand because my port-a-cath has not been put in yet. Everything was smooth, although I was a little cold in my arm from the liquid being pushed in.

We started with the chemo drugs and I got really itchy on my arm, really fast. Normally I wouldn’t have said anything, just thinking that’s what is supposed to happen, but I was given strict instructions to say if ANYTHING seemed unusual…um, hello? I’m a 33 year old with cancer…isn’t that unusual enough? (apparently not…I’m about 1 out of 400 ish….)

Anyways, told the nurse and she seemed a bit concerned so she stopped the chemo, then started me on hydrocortisone to stop a potential allergic reaction. Once that was done, we tried the chemo again with the same itchiness in my arm. She then put in Benadryl to see if that would help. Finally we got underway and everything went relatively smooth after that. She told me it wound not normally take 4 hours like this time, and she’d call on Monday to speed up my port-a-cath surgery. She also told me I was doing great, holding things together, asking questions, and staying very calm…and that the first time is the hardest. Well, glad to have that one out of the way!

My reaction to the chemo has me thinking….the nurse said the itchiness never happens, and it’s very unusual. I’m 33 with breast cancer, and that in itself is a bit unusual. So maybe, just maybe, I’ll be an ‘unusual’ case. Like when they say, EVERYONE loses their hair on this drug…well, maybe I’ll be that one exception to the rule. When people talk about getting sick and just lying around a lot…maybe, I’ll be that ‘unusual’ case where I am just fine and continue on.

Now granted, I know this is wishful thinking, and that the statistics are there for reasons, but, if I have been this ‘unusual’ so far, maybe I will continue to be, but in a good way!

For now, I’ve just got a bit of a headache and need to drink a lot of water. And my urine is a different colour…like way different, but apparently that’s quite normal and not so ‘unusual’. I’m not sure what I was expecting everything to feel like. It was a poke, then some cold, and a bit of pressure, but really nothing. Maybe I thought I’d be able to feel everything working right away? My little immune system rushing to the ‘battlefield’ to defend on my behalf? Anyways, I feel fine and feel like I could do most things right now, so that’s great.

1 down, 7 to go.