Update – Chemo Day 1

It’s 5:15 pm
28 Apr 17

This is another early entry I posted on my Facebook Notes page. Back when Lori first started her chemotherapy after recovering from her surgeries. I remember this day like it was yesterday. Driving down Geddes Road through Dixboro and into Ann Arbor.
Lori was a little sore while recovering from her operations but we had been able to attend chemotherapy class and be showed what was going to happen during both the chemo treatments and later on,radiation treatments.
A couple of things of note to point out….the lovely Anqunette Jamison developed MS and had to retire from Fox 2 Detroit 1 Nov 2016. She is hanging tough and still makes guest appearances on the morning show.
I like to say thank you to Pat Miller who left a lovely comment in regarding my reposting my older blogs,in sharing Lori’s journey with others. It really made my day reading Pat’s comment about it helping several others. I am grateful for the graciousness of the folks who read my words.

 

Its 11:17 am
29 Apr 11

I’m here at the library in the Cancer Center at the U of Michigan. My wife is sleeping while she taking her first treatment.
We got here at 8 am…after waking up at 6:00 am to pack and prep for the day. Chemo therapy is divided into two sections,an infusion section for short therapies and an infusion center on the 4th floor for longer treatments. You can guess where we are at…..

     

Before we headed out,we had to prep my wife’s port…a port is where they inject the Cisplatin and Doxourbicin aka Red Death. Since this involves injecting a needle,we have to numb up the area with lidocaine and put a piece of saran wrap over the area.

The hospital suggests that we bring snacks as we are going to be there for a while. I do this,help out prepping the port,grab a couple of books and pack the Rodger Young up.

We checked in at 8 am and were escorted to the 4th floor. We met another patient who has fighting her own battle for a year now,she looked beaten and very tired. That will not be us…we will beat this bitch silly,we have too much to live for…and we will overcome.
That’s not say we expect every day to be perky and upbeat,we know it will not. The days after Chemo will be among the worst for her. Despite the meds they will be giving her to fight off the nausea,one has to understand that the chemo basically is killing both red and white blood cells as well as the cancer. No matter what,you’re going to feel like crap afterwards.

 

And I have to moniter myself as well….I had my first real bad day since this started in September. Now I have been frustrated but as far as feeling sad or despairing,I have done very well as not to show that. But the other day,wow..that was a rough one. Felt pretty crappy to tell you all the truth. Must have been broadcasting that pretty loudly because every time ( or where) I sat down,Derek was jumping up on my chest and staring at me.
As the day went on,I felt better and ended up feeling pretty decent…
We checked into the infusion center and soon got set up. Our nurse,Patrice,took my wife’s vitals and started a saline drip. One of the things we learned was a person’s drugs can take up to 2 hours to prep before you even start your treatment. So we watched the royal wedding on Fox 2 and were totally blown away by how beautiful one of the morning anchors,Anqunette Jamison,looked.

All the nurses came over and we all agreed Q blew away Kate Middleton away. Then we started talking about British women seem more handsome then outright beautiful. My wife and I started trying to list 10 English women who are considered to the general public as beautiful.

We came up with

 

Amanda Holden

Jane Seymour

Sophia Myles

Geri Halliwell (okay,we split on that one…but I think she is a beauty)

 

 

We said Catherine Zeta-Jones but a nurse pointed out she is Welsh,not English….so we are stuck as 3.5….so drop a name we may have missed.

After an hour,she got her Cisplatin and she is taking that,they also gave her some Ativan to help relax her and make her comfortable. The therapy is very aggressive and is designed to knock this cancer out in the first round. That’s because one can become resistant to the Cisplatin over the long term.

Before I head back up….I have writing these updates and tagging people who have expressed well wishes to us during this journey. I have not really written this and pushed it as a published blog. I decided to start a group of people who would like to get a notice on whats going on. If you are reading this and care to join the group,please send me a note or drop a comment asking to do so. Your support and prayers are incredibly important to my wife and I.

 

Thanks for reading and share your thoughts on the royal wedding as well….*s*

 

28 Apr 17
Thanks for reading.