Chemo Day

Today is the first chemo day. The basic idea is that they inject DKO with various different chemicals every few weeks for the next eighteen weeks. These are intended to kill off any cancer cells that may be wandering about her body. My very naive understanding is that the chemicals basically target any cell that is growing or dividing. These are poisons.

8:45am. We leave for the hospital. We go past the Border's to pick up the "chemo reading kit": People, Us, etc., all the news about Jennifer, JLo, Angelina, Brad, Britney, etc. Next stop is the coffee bus for a little decaf comfort, and then past work to drop off tupperwares.

10:20am. We reach the Cancer Center and wait for 40 minutes or so. DKO is pretty anxious and the wait is frustrating.

11:00am. We go to the "Infusion Pod". I'm hoping for a hottub with a view of the mountains and a Martini bar, but it doesn't happen. The facilities are quite nice...and huge. There's something like six rooms for four people each, plus another ten private rooms. One of the nurses explains that the chemo space here is eight times as large as their old digs down at UMC.

12:00pm. I go off to pick up something to eat. There's a Safeway a block away, but it turns out Ghini's (bakery/restaurant) is on the same corner. I pick up some pasta and salad to split with DKO and some pastries for Dwight (the father-in-law). Oops, he's not here, so we're going to have to eat those all ourselves....

12:40. I'm back in the hospital, but I've missed some excitement. They had given DKO various pre-chemo drugs, and while I was gone, they started her on Taxotere, the first actual chemo drug, and she apparently had a minor allergic reaction. They take that quite seriously though, so apparently the drugs were shut off, they gave her hydrocortisone, and a doctor appeared. I arrive when the doctor's checking DKO out. All appears to be fine and they decide to wait 30 minutes before restarting. DKO's regular chemo doctor then shows up and they restart while she's here. All seems to go well and the chemo doctor heads off.

2:20. Popsicles. DKO has just about finished the Taxotere. No more allergic responses. She thinks her hands might be a little tingly. The nurse says that's not a symptom she's aware of but the lady next to us (with cool orange shoes) says she had tingly hands with Taxotere.

3:20. All is well. DKO finished the Taxotere and they've started her on Cytoxin. This latter one is supposed to go for about an hour and then we can leave. The doctor and the nurse are both saying that they're worried that DKO will have "anticipatory nausea", where the patient is so worried about getting nauseous that they get nauseous. Now Liz the chemo nurse has just shared some green corn tamales with DKO...which smell really good.

4:00pm. We're done with the Taxotere. A quick dose of Atavan(?) for nausea, some schmoozing with the nurse and we're gone. Home by 5:30 and I'm off to pick up groceries and prescriptions.