…makes you STRONGER?
Day 1 of CODEX=M/IVAC chemo, and my body is handling it pretty well.
Of course, the chemo drugs haven’t really been IN my body long enough to cause the brutal side effects they keep telling me I’ll be seeing. AND the nurses are doing an amazing job of both explaining the prophylactic measures they’re taking to prevent bladder problems, nausea, headaches, dizziness, unexpected bleeding—if it is an undesirable side effect, the chances are it’s part of my chemo journey!
I can be relaxed about this so far because it’s only day one. We’ll see how happy I am on day 7, when the side effects begin to come into their own. For now, I’ll enjoy what I can enjoy, not that getting liters and liters of fluids pumped into me all day is terribly ENJOYABLE, but it’s not horrible.
Amusingly, one of the drugs can have neurological side effects that show up when the patient tries to write a sentence, so the nurses had me pick a sentence that I can write over and over through the day to make sure that my brain is working as we all want it to work.
The sentence I chose? “There’s always money in the banana stand!” Neither of my nurses had heard of it. There’s nothing quite like explaining an obscure cable TV joke, entirely out of context. I probably should have chosen, “NO TOUCHING!” as my sentence.
Today Gerry was down at Mayo meeting with his new cardiologist. I’m so excited about this, because we’ve put his heart health on the back burner since my own diagnosis, and it’s high time that he got a little attention paid to his health issues. One of my dear knitter friends volunteered her husband to drive Gerry down, and he seemed happy to do it, so we are VERY excited and VERY grateful to Wilson for ‘volunteering’ to be Gerry’s driver, that was a gift!
Andy was taking care of getting me settled in my 5-day hospital room, so they weren’t available for the drive down. I ended up needing some stuff from home that I forgot, so it was very good that Andy was nearby.
It feels a little surreal to be back on the same ward that I was in when I was diagnosed, now I have no hair, but still the nurses seem to remember me. It’s a really lovely group of folks here, I feel like I’m visiting family a little bit!
Great sentence, way better than “I’ve made a huge mistake.”
What would happen if your sentence was “I don’t understand the question and I won’t respond to it.”??
“There are dozens of us [AD fans]! Dozens!”
Yay – so happy you get to have the drugs Mayo wanted to give you and it’s close to home! So much easier. Hope you continue to fight off the side effects – nurses will surely keep an eagle eye on you. And hope Gerry had a good appointment. Sucks that you’re both I’ll.
Thinking about you, Gerry & Andy – what an immense journey for each one of you. You know – I hope – that there is a whole big bunch of folks pulling for all of you – it must be hard for Max to hear about what’s going on & not be able to join in. He’s in our thoughts as well. I’ve got both hands on that velvet rope – – – pulling . . .
Oncology nurses are truly special people. Sending the good juju! XO