Monday, October 31, 2011

Two down, fourteen to go...

I had my second chemo session last friday. Again, it took long long hours. Gabo was flying back from Europe, and Manu took me to the hospital. We arrived at 1.30 pm and got home at 10.30 pm. The whole process is kinda exhausting.

To those of you who haven't seen me, I have a port for chemotherapy. It was surgically placed under my skin and connected to a vein in my neck. Yes. It sounds like in the Matrix. (Manu says that I can dream of being Neo...)

When I arrive at the hospital, they clean the skin above the port and stick a considerably impressive needle into it. The next step is drawing blood out of there, then rinsing it, and then hooking me up to IV. And then begins the prelude to my chemical romance... I get steroids, so as to survive the atomic bomb about to be dropped; antihistaminics, to avoid violent allergic reactions; and antiemetics, to prevent uncontrolled vomiting. This takes about three hours. After that, I am ready for yet another three hours of Taxol, the substance that will kill any remaining cancer cells. (More about the niceties of Taxol next time).

The big surprise with session 2 was that I got insomnia, and couldn't sleep at all from Friday to Saturday. While I was lying in my bed, awake, I was imagining an army of chemotherapy raging through my body, wiping out good and bad. But I couldn't feel a thing. Saturday was strange, because of the lack of sleep. Sunday was a killer. I was completely wiped out, weak and exhausted. But Gabo was already here, making everything OK. He is like a wizard. The most loving wizard of all.

Let's find out what surprises follow...

1 comment:

  1. This sounds scary and exhausting and confusing and more than a little strange, and I am deeply thankful to be able to follow along with you and hear a little about how you're feeling and what you are thinking. I am imagining the chemo army (and the other participants in your chemical romance) right now, and I have a feeling they will pop up in my dreams tonight. Much love to Manu and the Wizard, and of course, to the great HH!

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