I had my first chemo session a few days after my birthday. My mom in all her awesomeness came in the night prior so she could keep me company during chemo. I was a little anxious that morning, there were so many unknowns, what if the nurse couldn’t access my port? What if I had a reaction to the chemo, I had heard my fair share of horror stories.
After meeting with my oncologist I went to the infusion center. My nurse was great, went over lots of information and accessed my port on the first try. She explained how all the medications would be administered over the next 3 hours, and informed me that the particular chemo I was prescribed is referred to as the “red devil”. “Any and everything that comes out of your body the next few days will have a red tinge to it, be warned.”
So there I sat in my chemo chair in a tiny corner of the room with my mom and Dave. I kept hydrated and wrapped myself in a blanket sent to me by a dear friend, and tried to will the chemo to only attack any cancerous cells that might be in my body. (A girl can try.) One of the medical assistants came by with a lunch cart and I picked out a few goodies, and just sat there. I had plenty of people tell me about the chemo experience, but it almost felt anticlimactic, I think I thought I would feel something immediately like the healthy cells in my body screaming and running for their lives or something, but alas, it was like sitting in someone’s lazy boy.
When I was done, we headed home. I still had my appetite and enjoyed dinner, and hung out with the kids a little before their bedtime. My daddy flew in that night, to drive back with my mom, but I’m sure it was also because he wanted to see his favorite middle daughter.
That night after going to bed I woke up with some stomach upset, but it subsided after a couple of trips to the bathroom. The next morning, I was a little groggy, but that might have been due to not sleeping the night prior. Once my parents headed off, I did sleep the majority of the day.
The remainder of the week, I felt fine, no severe fatigue nothing out of the norm. I know that was the result of so many people praying for that. I was told that I’d become severely anemic, so I was recommended an over the counter iron supplement in addition to the iron in my prenatal pills, and I’ll have to do 7-hour iron infusions the day after my chemo sessions until my iron gets its act together.
Oh yeah, meanwhile I also had the anatomy scan for the second trimester and the baby is still doing just fine, growing normally, busy moving, and is a girl. I know I asked for y’all to pray for a boy, but if I’ve learned anything through this process so far, it’s that I only think I know what I want, and God knows what I need. That doesn’t prevent us from praying that this little girl will be chill and/or that being a big sister will calm Micah down some.
I pray everyone has a safe and joyous holiday season. I feel like I got Christmas a little early with the gift of lack of side effects, and the ability to feel well enought to enjoy Christmas with my family before my next infusion.
flint & honey 