June 7, 2006
better living through chemistry
It’s the first morning after my first chemotherapy treatment yesterday. Chemo consisted of me sitting in a chair in a room with three other patients (aptly called the “chemo corral” by another blogger), and having a pile of information dropped on me by a nurse, mostly about side effects of the four chemo drugs they are giving me: adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine and dacarbazine (ABVD), and the side effects of the drugs they are giving me to alleviate the side effects of the chemo drugs. Light sensitivity, nausea, lowered immunity, headaches, allergic reactions, diarrhea, trouble sleeping, etc, etc.
Then I just sat in a chair for three hours getting drugs by IV, typing on my laptop with one hand. Had a couple brief allergy-like reactions on the way home - runny nose and some skin redness, but those went away within a couple hours. Felt OK all evening. Woke up a couple times last night with mind racing, but was able to get back to sleep with some simple centering meditation. I was surprised by the amount of liquid by body was eliminating - it was obviously not down with all the wonderful chemicals it was fed, so I’ve been chugging the clear fluids to compensate. Besides all that I’ve just felt a general body fatigue, but mentally I feel fine, and I haven’t had any uncomfortable side effects. So yay - overall I feel much better than expected.
posted: 9:07 am
Glad things went well. It’s a good sign that the first round was not too shocking to your system… i spent my first night sleeping on the bathroom floor!
You forgot to mention the drugs to counteract the side-effects of the drugs you’re taking to counteract the side-effects of the drugs you’re taking in chemo. Or don’t you have any?
Yeah, my first night was fine.
Indeed, the drug-side-effect spiral goes ad infinitum (and ad absurdum).
The only side-effects I’m dealing with right now are an odd combination of tiredness and mental nervousness or restlessness.
Ramones said it best: I wanna be sedated.