Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Chemo Day 1

Today was my first day of chemo. Just like everyone told me the worst part of it is that it is a long day with lots of waiting. We were there from 10:00am to 4:20pm. It makes for a very long day.

I am happy to report that I had no problems at all. There were no problems accessing my port and I did not have any type of reactions to any of the drugs. The only significant event was that they gave me benadryl in case I were to have an allergic reaction and it made me very sleepy. I stayed awake most of the time except for about the last half an hour. My nurse was someone I know from Darci's soccer team and she was fabulous. It was really nice to have someone familiar there with me.

My husband and two friends came with me. They were fabulous and brought me lots of goodies and kept me entertained the whole time so that I didn't have to concentrate on what was going in my body. My friend Kristina also dropped by to visit which is pretty significant given the last time she was there, she was going through her own treatment. She is a very brave and thoughtful girl and I am glad to have her in my corner.

I came home and ate dinner like normal and even went for a walk around the neighborhood. So far so good. I have loads of drugs to take to keep ahead of any potential nausea, constipation, acid reflux problems or pain. I generally take a multi-vitamin and a calcium supplement so taking 6 or 10 pills twice a day is very new to me.

I am off work for the next week and a half to see what happens. I am told to expect achiness and fatigue to set in by the weekend, so it is likely I will not be as comfortable as I am today, but I will get through it all. I plan to spend the next two days with my beautiful girls doing something fun if I feel up to it and if not, they are prepared to lay in bed with me and watch movies.

I am surprised and touched that so many people called or emailed today. With all of your busy lives, I am stunned that you would all keep my dates straight as well. Thank you for that. It really does make a difference in my attitude when I hear from people. It is a little pick me up everytime I get a phone call, email or card. I now have 3 weeks off and my next treatment will be July 30. I am hoping that it is a very uneventful 3 weeks!

Much love to all.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Healing Day. Today is the first day of the rest of your life and I cannot tell you how proud I am of you for taking the bull by the horns. There simply are not enough words to tell you how much I love you. You are my sister, my best friend and my inspiration. My daughters have the best auntie in the world.

We all love you so much - Dawn, Mike, Ellie, Rachael and Jillian Tracy

Anonymous said...

Go Tracy! I was thinking of you all day yesterday, starting at 4:30am. Apparently, I thought I needed to get a jump on the "worrying about my friend" and "sending you good thoughts" mental activities. Enjoy your moments of mommying in the next few days, sounds like a good plan.
Hugs,
Kris