Chemo treatment #6

Well...this is it. The last time I'll have to write about chemo. Ever. Hopefully. :)

I had my last chemo on Friday. Matt was there (as always) and this time, my mom came with us. She got to see how truly boring it is and she also got to see all the crap they put me through. For instance, I'm having trouble giving blood. Apparently, my body is dry and the chemo is turning me into a vampire. Hence the not sleeping, too. Okay...maybe I'm reading too many vampire books. But really...my body is refusing to give blood. I had nurse Kelly this time. In order to try to get blood, I leaned forward with my hands on Kelly's shoulders. No go. I leaned all the way back in the chair with my arms over my head. Still no. I hummed. That apparently opens some vein that my port is attached to or something like that. That didn't work either, but it sure made us laugh. I was finally given a dose of Alteplase, a blood thinner that's slightly stronger than Heparin. After sitting for about 15 minutes, we tried again and finally the blood started flowing. This whole process took a total of about 45 minutes. Sheesh. You can see the pictures of each one of these in the my last chemo album.

I was not given the Bleomycin this time because on Monday I reported having shortness of breath to my doctor. As I wrote earlier, the Bleo is known to cause lung damage. She nixed it this time, just in case. With the Bleo, I get Tylenol and Benadryl, so I didn't get those, either. I still got the Ativan, the push-in drugs and the Decarbazine. All in all, we left about 30 minutes earlier than usual.

I got a lot of presents on Friday. When I got to the chemo lounge, there were flowers in my seat. (I have a regular seat...I sit in it every time. Of course, this last time, my seat was taken by some lady. Who does she think she is??? :) I ended up having to sit next to her. Then I changed seats again. She left about 15 minutes later so I moved to MY seat. Kelly was very patient...) Anyhow, back to the flowers. They were beautiful petite roses from my in-laws in fall colors. What a surprise! I also got a visit from Lisa, my chemo buddy. She brought me some wonderful smelling lavendar lotion and bath salt (which I used last night). When I got home, there was an "I love you" balloon with a Starbucks card attached to it from Matty. My brother and sister-in-law and my brother's boss also give me presents every chemo Friday. I've gotten Halloween decorations, cookbooks, candy, lavendar scented things (lotion, air freshener, etc), body lotions, and many other things.

Yesterday was the worst I've felt after chemo. I was so nauseous, I took one of my other anti-nausea pills in addition to the 2 I take for 3 days after. It helped a little, but certainly not enough. It was the only time during this that I was truly bedridden. Thank God I'm done! I'm better today...just exhausted. Fortunately tomorrow is a student holiday so I'll be in a meeting all day. At least that's somewhat relaxing.

Well, that's it for now. The side effects will come on soon and I'll post about those for the LAST time as well. :) In 2-3 weeks, I'll start radiation and (hopefully) be cancer-free!

Also...don't forget about the walk. It's next Sunday and we'd love to have YOU there! http://teams.lightthenight.org/PurplePeopleEaters_SouthernMethodistUniversity

Thanks for reading!