January 8 - First Chemo Treatment

Yesterday, I found a great deal of stress and anxiety building in me for this first chemo treatment and what it would do to me. Stress and anxiety are not normal for me - I am normally very calm - letting stressful stuff roll off me. Not this time.

I am happy to say that the first chemo treatment (my treatments are at Central Dupage Hospital) went very smoothly - it was a heck of a lot easier than I expected - in truth even with research - I didn't know what to expect.

Basically, I was given an IV and they slowly dripped various chemo drugs in me thru out the date. I basically sat in an reclyner for about 7 hours as the drugs made their way in. I kept expecting that the next drug would cause some sort of unpleasant reaction - but it didn't happen. The nurse was most concerned with the first drug (Rituxan). In many cases Rituxan can cause adverse reactions with the heart while it is dripped in. For this reason this drug goes in very slowly - about 5 hours. Thank God - in my case there was no problems. The interesting thing about Rituxan is that it basically paints targets on the cancer cells that acts like a magnet for the other chemo drugs - amazing. I believe this is a newer drug that has just started being used in the last 5-10 years.

After the Rituxan finally finished making its way in me there were four or five other drugs that were pushed in much quicker. Some that are part of the chemo treatment others that are used to counteract the unpleasant side effects of the treatment.

Once all the drugs were in, they removed the IV and we were free to go. The nurse was confident that I would do well and might not even have much of an adverse reaction in the first couple of days.

While I was a bit tired Thursday evening - I was blessed in that it was uneventful.

What I thought might be a stressful day was oddly fairly relaxing. I can only hope this is a good sign for my future treatments - which will be done once every three weeks. I expect I'll have to do seven more.