1/16/09 GO - First Chemo

January 16th - What a day.
I woke up with terrible pain in my left shoulder and upper arm and I took 3 Advil. I could not wait to see my surgeon at 8:30 to ask about the pain.

8:30 - Surgeons office - Medical Arts Bldg at the Med. Center

He suspected the pain described was due to the needle left in on Tuesday when I got my port. Probably, muscle spasms and it would go away when removed after my chemo. He drained off 6 tubes of fluid from the node removal area.

The remaining day was spent at Graves Gilbert Clinic

9:20 - Lab Work

I went to the treatment room to have blood drawn for testing to see if my blood count was good for chemo.

11:00 - Oncologist (Chemo Doc)

I was consulted and checked for everything- weight, blood pressure, illness, mouth, port site, any new physical pains, etc. He ordered a Echocardiogram before I begin chemo.

11:15 - Echocardiogram

The purpose of this test is to see how well my heart pumps blood, and to determine if my valves are functioning properly. Melvin had to help me undress waist up because of my shoulder pain. They attached ECG wires at various places on my chest. He asked me to lie on my left side, to obtain pictures of my heart using a special probe and ultrasonic gel. It hurt because of my pain on that side. It took approximately 45 minutes. Melvin helped me dress and cried a little from the pain.

12:00 - Oncology office

I went straight to a nurse and asked for any pain medication. She gave me two extra strength Tylenol and I sat in the treatment room relaxing and waiting for pain relief. The nurses said they were waiting on approval from the doc to give me chemo. The Echocardiogram results were on his desk. After feeling better, and since I hadn't eaten all day, I went to the waiting room and asked Melvin to go ahead and get something to eat to bring me something to eat, because I was just waiting.

I made a new friend.
I went back the treatment room which is a room full of reclining chairs, windows, a couple of wall mounted tv's, snacks, drinks, etc. Also, there were several nurses and four or five other patients receiving chemo. When I returned a nurse said the lady asked me to give you the tv remote. She was three recliners down from me. I looked her and thanked her. We talked for a while. Her name is Flo DeVasher and my mom's maiden name is DeVasher. She is from Russellville and attends First Baptist Church. She has been battling Leukemia. Her husband is a distant cousin of my Uncle Wallace DeVasher that had the car lot on Columbia Ave. Her husband passed a couple of years back and her son has brought her to all of her treatments. She is approx. 75-80. She has added me to her prayer list and I told her that I would pass her name on to my support group. So please add Flo Devasher to your prayer list. She mentioned once how she had asked God to answer a prayer and he didn't. But come to find out later he answered in a different way and things worked out for the better. She laughed and said he knows best.
What a lovely lady and how she blessed me by uplifting me on a day I needed it most.

Melvin returned and we ate in the waiting room. Then the nurse came and said they were ready for me. Mom and Wayne had stopped by so I hugged all and went back to the treatment room.

1:30 - Chemo

First, I had a bag of premeds(for nauseousness, steroids for the fatigue, and another) it was a mix of medicines that took about 30 minutes to drip.

Second, I had my first chemo nicknamed the "red devil".
Definition:
Adriamycin (Doxorubicin): Adriamycin is a chemotherapy drug, a type of anthracycline antibiotic that is an anti-tumor drug. It is made from the bacterium Streptomyces. Use For Breast Cancer: Adriamycin can be used to treat early-stage or node-postive breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer, and metastatic disease. Adriamycin is sometimes combined with cytoxan and/or 5-flouracil to make a cocktail of breast-cancer fighting chemotherapy drugs.
It was bright red and manually slowly squeezed from a syringe into my port by a nurse. She pulled out a little blood frquently and mixed it with the blood.
It took about 30 minutes.

Third, I had my second chemo Cytoxan.
Definition:
Cytoxan is a chemotherapy drug that is used in combination with other drugs to treat cancer. It is derived from mustard gas, and is an anti-tumor drug. Cytoxan is often combined with two other drugs, Adriamycin and 5-Fluorouracil, in a chemotherapy infusion to treat breast cancer. This combination is called AC, FAC or CAF.
It took about an hour.

I had my needle removed from my port and immediately felt better.

I left for home about 3:00.

I'll email later about all of my instructions for the next couple of months.
Bev sees a new doctor next week and I will email about that also. Daniel is doing fine. And I am a little nauseous but have headaches.
Remember Flo and love to all.