We drove down for our second chemo treatment yesterday. We left the house at 9:30, so didn’t need to get up in the dark this time. We got there and the quick pass line wasn’t open so we had to get in a much longer line, but we had allowed plenty of time for the 20 minutes it took. We spent some of the time listening to a grumpy old man (with his mask not covering his nose) telling everybody how awful this treatment of waiting in line was and how he was going to call his friend the head of oncology about it. Later we heard him ranting to himself about everything. I felt very grateful that neither of us go through our days filled with anger like that - how exhausting!
My blood work went very smoothly. It was different than last time in that they only needed 3 vials of blood, and they didn’t use a towel to warm up my veins or a green light to see things. She gave me another one in my hand, and told me something interesting. If they start the IV in your forearm and it doesn’t work, they have to wait 24 hours to try again, but it they start in the hand and it fails, they can move up to the forearm and try right away. It’s because the chemicals could join with the same vein and leak out if done one way, and they only want them going where they should be. A later person said she worked in the ER and they stuck holes willy nilly where needed, but that was to get nourishing fluids in, and if they leaked it could be dealt with.
We got to the weigh-in area and got all the vitals checked, then took me in early to see the oncologist. Dr Sheib said there were a lot of people out (mostly they’d had covid exposure or had a cold so couldn’t come in), so we had to wait for a pharmacist to tell us about the new drug I’d be taking. She told us that most people did well with this drug (immunotherapy drug Pembro), but there were extra tests we’d be running and extra symptoms to look out for. Along the way, the blood draw tech and the person who gave me the chemo later both told me that their experiences have been that people do really well on this drug, so that was encouraging! The purpose of pembro is to rev up my immune system to attack the tumor cells, with the goal of shrinking or eliminating the tumor by the time surgery happens, and the odds are 15% better with this drug.
Dr Sheib also said she felt the tumor had softened a bit, so that’s good. She told me I should expect my hair to fall out this week and asked me if I had a wig ready. I told her I planned to let it fall out or shave it and go natural, and I had some soft hats to keep me warm. The girls gave some soft sleeping hats with out-of-the-way seams to try, so I’m ready!
I had to wait about an hour to start the chemo. They have to make it up individually after my weigh-in in a clean room with double supervision. When they give it to me it also has to be double-checked by a second technician before they start each drug. This time they started and finished like the last time: start with saline and long-lasting anti-nausea drugs and an oral anti-nausea drug, and end with a push of one chemo drug followed by an IV drip of the second chemo drug. But this time they did another push of the Pembro right after the saline. By the way, the saline makes me taste/smell something like alcohol wipe. They said many people smell odd things. The pushes take about 30 minutes, and the drip an hour, so it’s a long time sitting there. My phone battery was almost dead, so I mostly talked with Frank and the technician, read a book, did puzzles, and zoned out. Our technician was Linzheng, which she said was pronounced like Lin Jenn, so I thought that was a nice name - first week like Suzi’s name, and this week like Jenny’s name! She was very nice.
The funniest thing that happened was when Frank was trying to tell me something, and I asked him to wait until the revving motorcycle passed by because I couldn’t hear what he said. Then the noise was continuing, and I thought (and said) it must be yard worker’s tools since it wasn’t going away. Eventually (maybe 20 minutes!) I recognized the sound as the snoring of the patient next to me! Frank had thought I was joking the whole time. Mind you were on the 9th floor, so it would have had to be wicked loud motorcycle or yard tools! I was crying from laughter at that! I guess I was zoning out in more ways than one!
Oh, and two nice things were that the weigh-in person loved my veggies socks some friends gave me and said it inspired her to eat more vegetables and fruits. Right after she ate her 9-year-old son’s ice cream birthday cake… that she was going to order as soon as I left! And two people noticed the family t-shirts we were wearing and loved them, and I got to tell then stories about my family and friends!
We were out of there a bit after 5, and got home, ate dinner, drank more water, and watched a movie. It was the latest James Bond movie, and possibly not the best movie to watch since it made me cry a lot which gave me a headache, but bed fixed that.
I’m feeling a bit tired, but good today. Took a walk with a friend on the phone and walked 1.3 miles in about 45 minutes. Nice and slow!
One change to everything will be additional trips to get the new treatment. The Pembro can only be given every three weeks, and the AC and T can only be given every 2 weeks. So my schedule will be one week off, just AC in 2 weeks, just Pembro in 3 weeks, just AC in 4 weeks, then a week off. Etc.
My next treatment is on January 12, starting with a blood draw at 2pm, oncologist at 3, and chemo at 4, so a later day. Hoping they will be doing ok with staffing and it won’t have delays.
That’s some loud snoring! Glad to hear the chemo is working and that you are prepared to keep that bald head warm!
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