Week 1 of Chemo

Hey again,

Last time I ended just before starting chemotherapy treatment, so naturally I'm going to start 5 weeks in.

LOL.

Nope, I'm only 3 weeks in at the moment, so I'm going to start on the first week.

I went in on the first Monday only to find that the PICC line they had put in had already stopped working. Argh! Stupid PICC line. I had another cannula put into my hand for the night so that the faulty line wouldn't delay my treatment, but it was a right pain to wash my hands, go to the loo and pretty much everything else, too, as it was my right hand.

I was really nervous about having my PICC line taken out, but it was nothing, so don't worry if you every have to have one out.

That same day, I had the most drugs put into me than I ever will have again until another month's time. I had every single kind of chemo drug I will (hopefully) ever have, other than one which I'm only supposed to have on weekends. I had a particularly nasty one that day, called doxarubicine (I don't know how to spell it sorry), which makes your wee go bright red and scared the hell out of me when I first went to the loo. I hate it the most because a) its the one that makes you feel really sick and b) its bright red, and just looks so unnatural when its being put into you. At least with the clear drugs you can ignore them!

Also, that day I started having the steroids. They. Taste. Gross. Like, seriously, couldn't they at least put a sweetener in? I have to have 4 small steroid tablets at lunch, 4 at dinner, and 1 small and 1 HUGE at breakfast every day. Yuck.

I thought the Monday would be the worst, as it was the first day and the one with the most drugs, but boy, was I wrong.

Tuesday was one of the worst days of my life so far. I knew that I was having another line put in, but had presumed it would just be another PICC, which just goes into your arm and is basically a big cannula. However the doctors forgot to mention that if they couldn't, for whatever reason, put the PICC in, they were going to put in a Hickman! I DO NOT WANT A HICKMAN. They go from your groin all the way up into your heart, with the risk of collapsing a lung. No thanks.

They had to let me talk to other patients with Hickman lines in before I would agree to go ahead with it, and even then I REALLY didn't want one. They put me to sleep with another general anesthetic and when I woke up I was so relieved to find out I didn't have a Hickman. So relieved.

I had only 1 drug (except for anti-sickness and steroids, which are tablets I have to have every day) and that drug was fine, it just takes a whole 2 hours, which kind of sucks.

Wednesday was fine, really, with just that 1 drug and a whole load of sausage rolls. I love sausage rolls. Thursday started off fine, but I felt so ridiculously sick in the afternoon, it was awful. Same went for Friday, but Thursday was definitely worse.

I met this guy on Friday who was having chemo for the second time. He had had leukemia before, but it had just come back again. His new chemo will last 3 years and 5 months, poor guy I feel really sorry for his family, because his sister had cancer too.

I stayed home at the weekend, so yeah, that was my first week of chemotherapy.

Bye,

Mitt xox