Here’s what my day at chemo is like:
My day starts with a cup full of anti-rejection drugs that are aimed at me not puking in the infusion center (and my body not having an allergic reaction to the poison they are going to pump me full of).
Then they access the port in my chest with a special needle, take blood for lab tests, and begin a saline drip. This is to keep me drinking water while I sit there so my kidneys don’t shut down. When the chemo pharmacist is ready with my custom bag of juice, they start it dripping too. The first drug I take is Rituxen and it is downright nasty. So much so that they have to start the drip very slow and then double it every thirty minutes until it hits a reasonable pace. This is the longest part of the day and this time the bulk of the 7 hours I was there.
The anti-rejection drugs usually make me drowsy and I can nap a little. Otherwise I try to watch a movie or play on the iPad. I can get up and walk around and go to the kitchen or the bathroom (my IV pole is portable). Jennifer usually goes downstairs to the cafe to grab me some lunch.
After the Rituxan, they have three more drugs to give me. The next is Adriamycin and it is pushed into my port through two giant syringes. It is bright red in color.
After that they hang a bag of Vincristine that only takes about 10 minutes to infuse. This is the one that can cause me more nerve damage so we’re being careful with the dose.
Then the last bag is hung and starts dripping. This one is Cytoxan and it takes an hour to infuse.
The last drug in my regimen is taken in pill form and we stop by the pharmacy on the way home to pick it up. It’s the steroid Prednisone and I take it for the first five days after chemo to help my body not get too sick.
I return to the infusion center 1-2 days later for a shot of Neulasta. It stimulates my bone marrow to make more white blood cells now that they’ve killed some more of them.
These first few days after chemo I’ve felt pretty sick. I’m hoping to turn a corner today. Most of the drugs are out of my body in 48 hours. Then I fight the steroid for 5 days and feel pretty okay after that until the next dose three weeks later.