What My First Chemo Day Was Like
So, do you want hear about chemo day 1? It went down like this:
· We arrived at my 11:30 appointment. While checking in, I learned that I had additional appointments I didn’t know about. I was assured that all of the people I was supposed to talk to would come see me in the infusion room.
· Foolishly, I thought that meant they would see me while I was being infused.
· In fact, all the talking — more than an hour and a half of it, happened before I got hooked up.
· My partner suggested that they talk at you for so long to make you actually wish for the infusion.
· They were all very nice, worked hard to tell me everything they thought I should know, and answered every question.
· While talking to the physician assistant (PA), I referred to the drug as poison. He gently suggested I call it medicine, as using the P word might trick my brain and body into responding as though I were being poisoned rather than being made well. I get his point, but, well, whatever.
· Before I move on to the infusion, which did finally happen, you need to know that my onco thought I should go ahead and get infusion #1 in my arm to see if I “tolerated” that all right. If I didn’t, we would move to installing a port in my chest for the remaining three…
