Chemo day 1 was blissfully uneventful. We spent a couple hours getting settled, drawing blood for labs, watching a video on chemo, and then walking through the "Cancer: Try Not to Die" handbook with Viv, my chemo nurse.
I had a slight reaction to the bandage Viv put on my port to keep the needle in place; I'd reach up to scratch at it and Viv would unapologetically slap my hand away. She changed it for a different kind, and everything was fine. Viv put on a Hazmat suit (not really, but almost) to hook up the poison. I couldn't tolerate the bandage adhesive, but the poison infusion was no problem. I thought my hands were going numb at one point, but I was pushing my elbows into the chair too hard.
I'm well armed with various anti-nausea medications. So I guess now I just carry on. Viv says the steroid they gave me will give me a false sense of pep, and the tiredness will set in once the steroid wears off. Bob "inquired on my behalf" about whether Dr. Trottier ever prescribes, oh, I don't know, say, Adderall to help with the tiredness. Turns out there's more research on using Ritalin, and Bob seemed to think that would work. For me. The patient. Dr. Trottier advised just seeing how everything goes before taking that route.
If forced to come up with physical evidence that I'd been poisoned today, I'd say my mouth has a bit of a metallic taste? But that's about it. Maybe bleeding from the eyes starts tomorrow.
