1st day of Chemo - March 12th 2008

Rebecca had her first chemotherapy treatment yesterday at Huntsman Cancer Institute.
All-in-all, I think she is tolerating the treatment very well. Although we were there from about 9:30am until about 1pm, the actual infusion took about 1 ½ to 2 hours. Our oncologist’s nurse practitioner spent a good hour and a half with us discussing the overall plan, procedures, side effects, and counter measures.
I would have to rate Huntsman care as an “A+”, despite the fact that the people who actually administer the chemo look like they’re dressed in EPA environmental disaster cleanup suits. . . . not really. Just kidding, but they do have to wear a protective gown and rubber gloves (not just surgical gloves – rubber gloves).
They also still get an A+ despite the fact that they had a difficult time finding a good vein for the IV to begin with. But the third time was a charm. (They tried the back side of each wrist first, but ended up just using the big vein in the crook of your arm opposite your elbow.) Once they got the IV needle inserted, it was pretty easy. However, not finding a good vein easily to begin with might be a problem with future infusions, because they warn you that chemo is hard on your veins, and it becomes more difficult for IV’s down the road. We’ll see what happens next time, but we may have to have a “port” inserted into a vein in Rebecca’s chest if they continue to have difficulty finding good veins in her arms. A port is just an IV “docking station” that they insert just under the skin of the chest directly into a vein – apparently, it’s a simple outpatient procedure.
They are giving Rebecca 2 chemicals (or “gravy”, as I call it). Andriamycin, which is the really bad one – and is appropriately colored red – and Cytoxin, which is clear. They inject the red gravy right into the IV in about a minute, and the clear gravy drips into an IV bag for about an hour. Then it’s done.
Rebecca actually napped through most of it, and when it was done, she wanted to have some lunch. We got home about 3pm and Rebecca went to bed and slept for about another 3 hours.
She has a good appetite ( we had dinner last night and breakfast this morning). I realize it’s very early in the process, but right now the only side effects that she’s had was a headache yesterday afternoon/evening (which we treat with Tylenol), some tiredness, and occasional queasiness (which only seems to happen right after eating). She slept very well last night, and seems to be tolerating it well so far.
Rebecca napped a little this morning, and then goes back to Huntsman early this afternoon for the “$6,000 shot” of neulastin, which is supposed to increase white blood count to boost the immune system.
I’m sure that the side effects with change and probably increase cumulatively as we get into this, but for now Rebecca’s doing pretty well. We’re going to try to get back to somewhat normal routines as soon as Rebecca feels up to it.

We thank you for your prayers and thoughts,

Mark