Day 2.1

Although I fell asleep at 9pm, I was wide awake at 11pm and felt like it was a good time talk about the first couple days. The past 2 post have been a little different as I have sent them to the blog from my blackberry and it's hard to review the text and spelling on that thing. By the time I have gotten home, I have not felt like sitting down to relive the day, even though they have not been too bad. I am extremely optimistic about the first 2 days of treatment and how I have felt even though I know there are delayed reactions to some of the chemicals.

When I get to the office (Rocky Mountain Cancer Center) in the medical plaza at the Parker hospital, I'm required to check in at the front desk and then wait for the nurse to call me back. The seating area has 6 treatment chairs, all blue recliners, with 3 on each side of the room, facing each other. There is an uncomfortable lack of privacy as I have seen a couple things in the first 2 days that I hope I never need to see again and I will fill that in later. When they call you back, you pick a chair ( I have sat in the same one for the first 2 days) depending on availability. On Monday, the office was empty and today, there were 4 people getting treatment when I arrived. The nurses come over pretty quickly as they already have prepared my medicine and come hang it on the IV poles. Once she gets everything set up with the IV machine, she attaches it to the tube hanging out of my chest (they can take out the connector from my port daily and I asked that they leave it in this week because it sucked when she put it in on Monday as my chest was still bruised from the surgery. In the future, I will have it installed daily so I don't have to deal with this). My treatment includes the following:

• 1st: The first bag of saline.
• 2nd: During the first bag of saline, they give me some antibiotics and anti nausea medication.
• 3rd: On Tuesdays only, I receive a bag of Bleomycin
• 4th: a Bag of Cistplatin
• 5th: a bag of Etoposide
• 6th: Right near the end of the Etoposide, I get a shot of Lasik which makes you go to the bathroom. They do not want the chemicals to sit in my system and after I get this shot, I have gone to the bathroom 5 or 6 times during the final bag. The seat I have chosen is close to the bathroom as I have to drag the IV machine in there with me.
• 7th: A final bag of Saline to help clear out the system.

Yesterday, when I talked to the Dr., he said this totals about 2.5 liters of fluids a day. After that, I am still responsible to drink 1-2 liters a day of other liquids. Since I grew up in the Los Angeles Unified School district, I have no idea how much this really is and would prefer that he convert this to ounces, quarts and gallons......

It's really pretty boring as they get your bag hooked up and leave to work with other people. The chairs were pretty full today and only 1 lady was there by herself. Everyone else had someone with them as they ask you not to drive yourself home. There is not a lot of space for guests to sit although the nurses really seem to work around them and make the guest seem as comfortable as possible. At one point on Monday, Jennifer and my Dad were there and I believe there was only one other guy receiving treatment. His wife was with him and she brought him in a wheelchair. Once they had him hooked up to the IV, they leaned him back and starting working on his head. As I mentioned above, there is NO privacy and I was lucky that the IV machine was in the perfect spot to block his head from my view. Jennifer was sitting in the chair to his left and she was not watching as it was really gross. I think they were pulling some fluid out of his head but I didn't pay close enough attention to it. At one point, the nurse told me I would not have to go through that procedure and I was pretty thankful.

When we initially talked with Reznick, I asked if we could do the treatment at the Cancer center in Aurora as it's closer to the house. He preferred that we come down to the Parker office and he gave us a solid list of reasons why. One of the reasons is that he felt the smaller group offers a better patient/nurse ratio. With 6 seats and 2 nurses, it's much better than the Aurora office that has 18 seat and a handful of nurses. I am sure I will talk about the nurses quit a bit over the next few months as they are truly amazing. I'd guess that it takes a pretty special person to become a nurse as they see and do things that I can't imagine. They are very matter of fact although it has a compassionate tone to it. Sandra and Karen are the nurses and we have enjoyed them for the first couple days. I'm sure I will post more about them and I'll also post their photos as soon as I remember the camera or whenever my Dad gets around to sending me the pic's he took on Monday. Yesterday, they sang a song to a guy who had just finished his final treatment and it was really nice. They must see the best and the worst.

There was a new guy there today who had a chip on his shoulder and, although I was watching a movie, I was able to get a feeling for his situation. He had treatment 1½ years ago and whatever he had came back. He was in his mid to late 60's, had this full head of perfectly combed hair and chewed on a toothpick the whole time. His interaction with Karen was interesting as he complained about her accessing his port and that she had done it wrong. They started to discuss his prior treatment and he mentioned where he had it and Karen knew one of the nurses over there so they talked about it for a moment. At that point, his very quiet reserve wife, mentioned that they used to call him "Mr. Trouble" and I was able to see Karen's reaction to that and she, as well as the rest of us, understood it immediately. What is strange is that I could see him again on Wednesday or never again. I can see that I will prefer to sit in there and be pretty quiet.

After the treatment, I expected to feel like crap and it has not happened yet. I would not say I've been 100%, maybe 80% on the low side, although I am still trying to feel out what to do, how and when to eat, etc. The nausea I felt on Monday was not as bad on Tuesday night as I did not lay down after dinner. Some of the literature I have read said not to drink anything an hour before or after you eat and not to lay down for 2 hours after you eat. Last night (it's currently 12:41pm) was good as I ate less and did not lay down. Again, I do not want to get ahead of myself and hope that more days are like to 2 I have already experienced and not as bad as I have imagined.

I watched Blood Diamond on Tuesday and the battery on Briley's dvd player died about an hour and 45 minutes into the film. I will finish it up on Wednesday and, if I have time, watch either Stranger than Fiction or Mr. Brooks.

I am now getting tired and think I can get back to sleep. That last thing I would ask is that if anyone has questions, email me or post them and I will respond but only if I like your question.

Still....82 days to go. I will update after today.