From my Facebook update yesterday at 2 pm.: First chemo done, woohoo!! Little dizzy, but some would say that’s me. We’ll see what the next few days bring.
Oh the optimism of the first five minutes after treatment. From there, I got progressively nauseous on the ride home; at which point we got a call from the Dr’s office. We’d forgotten to give a blood sample, but were told we could stop by my local Dr’s office, they would call it in and I could get my blood drawn there. By the time we got there I felt weak and flu-ish, and was very susceptible to smells. It’s amazing how you can be healthy, fit, and walk into a Dr’s office and they tell you that you are sick. Then there’s this medicine you take to help the sickness that hasn’t made you feel sick, go away. You start taking the medicine and presto, you feel sick in an hour. And that means you’re getting better. Weird.
Anyhoo, so we’re in the Dr’s office where they take blood, but they have no idea about me. so we walk across the hall to the general practitioner’s office and make some calls to get things going. As we’re waiting there, an older lady with the worst floral perfume ever walks into the office. I move as quickly as my body can carry me out of the waiting room, green to the gills, back to the blood taking area, to escape the other malodorous waiting area.
As I’m sitting there, minding my own business, the heroin chic twentysomething with the bedside manner that seems too common in some associated with the medical field (excluding any i’ve met relating to the big C), picks up the phone. I hear:
“Ya, she’s sitting right here. I have NO idea why, because there’s nothing I can do for her here”
I sit up out of my slump in the waiting room chair with the rest of the pained looking patients, and say “I’m sitting here because I just got chemotherapy, and the floral perfume in the other waiting room made me want to puke on their floor. But the bedside manner in here is so fabulous that I think I’d be better off leaving my lunch here and returning to Dr. Cooper’s waiting area.”
As much as I would like to say I quickly stood up, held my head high, and stalked out of the room, I know it probably looked more like I slithered off the chair and landed in a puddle that crept out of the room like the blob. At least, that’s how it felt.
We finally made it home to where Pa was anxiously awaiting us, and I cuddled up in a blanket on my newly painted back porch. My uncles are in the process of painting the outside of my house, and made sure that they finished my sunporch that overlooks our beautiful backyard in time for our return from Greece. They took such care and effort with the detail, and I can feel the love they put into the job. It’s a great place to sit when I’m feeling not so hot. It has been so nice to have family around, listen to my Uncles joke around, and share a beer on the back porch at the end of the day.
I have four different kind of medications to help with my nausea, and god bless them all. While feeling pretty weak, I enjoyed a lovely night on porch with my Dad and Lee, who did their best as fourteen month old Gracie ran circles around them.
This morning is not so bad, and it was waffle Saturday at casa Andron. I had a good appetite and ate while I could. Lee gets to give me a shot in the ass at 1, an immune booster that I get 24 hrs after chemotherapy. The Dr told us yesterday, “never go to bed mad, never give a shot angry”. I think he’s really looking forward to administering it.
So – Day 1 and a half down, so far so good. Here’s the totally crazy part. The tumor was starting to feel really big when we were in Greece. Lee and I were lying in bed in the back of our cave, and as much as I was loving our vacation, it was scary and felt bigger and I just couldn’t wait to start getting rid of it. I swear to God it feels smaller this morning.