Chemo Treatment #1

Well, surprise, the first chemo treatment came on Friday, April 11th, instead of Monday, April 14th. It was a sudden and last-minute decision, and it was done mostly for convenience for the doctors and for my mom.

My Grandma Ruth (dad's mom) happened to be with her. She had just come out of a small surgery to insert a "port-a-cath", which is basically a little catheter put in under her skin, in her chest, where they can draw blood and also where she'll receive her chemo. This will prevent the nurses from having to prick her arm to veins over and over and over.

Shortly after the surgery, she was surprised by a nurse telling her that her chemo mixture was "all mixed up." My mom explained that the treatment was scheduled for Monday, but the nurse asked if she could just go ahead and do it then. My mom agreed, and decided maybe it was for the best, since that would eliminate a whole weekend of worrying about it.

She sat in the chair for 2 hours as they dripped the drugs in, and got to know the people around her, most of them also there for their first chemo treatment. (She noticed that most of them had their hair.)

She was extremely saddened to see a 28-year old young mother there, also getting her first treatment. This girl had 3 kids, one of which was an 11-day old baby. She has a stage 4 lump that can't even be taken out yet, it's too big. My mom has worried about her ever since. She did say that she's extra grateful that her cancer developed at a much later stage of life.

Now, on to the side effects. She got the treatment around 4 p.m., and felt normal the rest of the day. Saturday she felt pretty good, running errands and making Jonny a corsage for senior ball. Sunday morning she woke up feeling like her head was full of pressure, and she said she felt like she was "puffy", but she looked normal. She started getting an intense headache and body aches. By Sunday afternoon she was experience intense nausea, and pretty much just feeling awful. She didn't throw up, and she got a blessing from my dad. She was blessed to have a good night sleep, and that the chemo would "do what it's supposed to do". She went to bed and slept wonderfully, and has slowly felt a little better each hour, each day. She is still having a little trouble breathing and swallowing, yet a few more side effects of her particular chemo drugs, but she has a great attitude and is trying to eat, drink, and take walks as much as she can.

I took her to a doctor appointment Monday morning, where we got the good news about the PET scan (see previous post) and where I was able to ask the doctor lots of questions about everything I could think of.

He told us that her muscle aches are because of the "growth hormone" that she's getting, and that it will be constant, and miserable. He prescribed more pain medication and told her to USE IT! He also prescribed another anti-nausea medicine to add to the regime. It's very expensive, but we don't care at this point. If it works, we'll take it.

She doesn't need it right now, so she'll probably give it a try next round.

The treatments will be every other Friday for 16 weeks. (That means the next one will be on April 25th.)I was informed that each time she will get sicker, faster, and stay sicker for longer. We are all going to have to step-up to the plate and learn to deal with it. It's going to be hard watching her suffer...we've already started to experience it and to know it's going to get worse...it's very hard to swallow. But our hearts are already all being welded together as we love and serve her, and we remember that it is only a few short months of misery before we'll have her back, and our lives will be changed forever, for the better.

We'll keep you updated on everything as time goes on. Please know that she is getting lots of rest, and is answering as many calls and taking as many visitors as she can fit in. She's loves you all and we do too. Okay, that's all for now.