47. 1st Chemo

First chemo today.  SO last night, I thought it would be a good idea to go out to dinner before I lost my appetite.  Lovely Italian meal but bugger me, if I wasn't developing a headache.  Half way through the main course I started to worry it might turn into a migraine.  It only got worse, so by the time we got home, I went straight to bed.  Up at 4am to take painkillers for a pounding headache (thankfully hadn't turned into a full on migraine).  Still feeling rough at 8.30 but had to get up anyway to get my stuff and get out of the flat (estate agents coming round to take pics - yes, despite cancer/chemo, my home is being sold from under me.  Meh.). 

At the hospital for 12.30.  A large room full of invalid chairs and drips.  It didn't register at the time but I was by far the youngest in there.  My nurse, a bloke, seemed a bit drippy but OK.  I had to have bloods done and then wait for the result.  He put a cannula in (I'm STILL a wimp about this) and took the bloods through that.  And then we waited and waited.  I chatted a bit to the bloke next to me, who just happened to be the 2nd youngest person in there.  Nice, a biker, tattoos etc.  He assumed I'd got lung cancer (my age?  wrinkles?). 

Finally the blood results came back and the nurse came to start the chemo.  Five syringes.  Two full of fuchsia liquid.  The stuff I had was so nasty it couldn't be put in a drip, but had to be injected by hand, through the cannula of course.  The first syringe, of clear stuff, made my bum tingle (strange but distracting at least), the red stung as it went in, the final clear syringe stung too, but as it was nearly over, I didn't moan.  About 45 minutes in total, which bodes well for the remaining treatments, despite an overall time today of 4 1/2 hours (waiting for blood results).  No sickness today, but I can expect that in the next two days. The tiredness/exhaustion will kick in mid cycle apparently - days 7-10ish.  And my hair will start to fall out after the second treatment.

It was fairly low key.  Food in the form of sandwich bags was provided as was tea and coffee.  There was some kind of art project going on, but really, not the right place. 

A batch of anti sickness tablets given and explained, as well as a timetable for the rest of the chemo and we were away.  Not as bad as it could have been, by far.  Oh, and it got rid of my headache.