The Third Chemotherapy Treatment...

Here's where I sit for 5 hours
(the green chair on  the right)

Today was my third round of chemotherapy. You wouldn't think that I would have to report on every chemo treatment, except that occasionally things go awry or are noteworthy.

This week has been a rough week, because I have had an overwhelming amount of work that I have to complete. Between three professional development days, a humongous amount of pointless work in my grad class, and attempting to come up with lesson and unit plans for the start of the new school year for which I have been fairly unsuccessful about completing, I have been feeling incredibly stressed which has led to many a sleepless night of late. Take all those factors and add in battling cancer and what do you think you get? One completely exhausted, overly emotional, and thoroughly panicked person. Therefore, spending 5 hours sitting in a chair tethered to a machine and unable to do any of the actual work that needs completing in preparation for the new school year is only adding to my panic attacks. I'm starting to think that maybe I can't do it all. Funny enough, I'm actually not Wonder Woman. Who knew? But that explains why I don't have the Lasso of Truth - man, how useful would that be!

Today's appointment started with blood and vitals taken, followed by a meeting with the replacement oncologist ("RO"). (My usual oncologist is out on maternity leave.) The RO gave me a very thorough exam and asked me a bunch of questions. He makes for a wonderful replacement for the next couple of months. He even kindly provided me with the two doctor's letters that are required for me (i) to return to work and (ii) apply for intermittent FMLA (just in case I need it). But there's one thing that he's changing, much to my disappointment, and that is my next CT scan. My original oncologist said that she wanted to CT me after the third treatment (today's). The RO is pushing it back until after the fourth treatment. <sigh> So I have minimally another month before I know whether or not these toxins are actually helping my situation. Oh, well. There's nothing I can do about it. It's not like I can go and hold a gun to his head and force him to write the order. Hmmmmm...can I? No, no, I can't.

Next step was, as always, the infusion center. Today was a comedy of errors that was not from human error, but machinery malfunctions. First, when trying to place the needle in the top of my hand, it bent so it couldn't actually pull in the fluid, but that wasn't discovered until 5 minutes after many painful moments of trying to get it to work. The nurse pulled the needle out, saw that it had bent, and then had to find a new spot - which was on the inside of my wrist. Mother effer that's painful! Now I know I have a tattoo in that exact same area, but placement of the needle in this area hurts horribly - much more than my tattoo. Hours later and the site still hurts! Later the infusion machine had a malfunction and needed to reboot. Plus for some reason, which has never happened to me before, toward the end of my 5 hours of treatment, I started to feel really nauseated. I'm not certain if it was from the treatment or if the little bit of pastry I ate didn't sit well with me, all I know is that I felt horrendous - still do.

The last bit of annoyance for the day was the fact that I didn't get as much work done as I wanted - through my fault mostly. With all the comings and goings of other patients, the chatter on the ward, the interruptions to check on my vitals and change my meds, I just couldn't concentrate. Theoretically I should have finished or at least nearly finished the book I'm reading which I need teach in just a little more than a week, but alas I'm only on Chapter 3 of 12 of Lord of the Flies by Nobel-prize winning British author, William Golding.  Part of the problem is that one, I don't really like the book and two, I'm easily distracted (because I don't really like the book). How I am going to get this book read before I start teaching it promises to be interesting. Have I mentioned that I don't really like the book? :-)

All in all, today was not a great day, although as always, the care and commitment of the nursing staff is extraordinary. As I mentioned, I won't know about the efficacy of the treatment for a month, so until then keep your fingers crossed. Wish me luck on getting through the first week of school next week with feeling nauseated, muscle and joint pain, neuropathy, fatigue, and all the rest of the side effects. Ah, it promises to be a craptacular week!

Ouch! This hurt!