Day 2 Report - and Dish hikes this weekend

So Day 1 was a bit rocky but Day 2 has been much better. I'll be at the Dish 9am both Sat and Sunday this weekend (July 18th, 19th)

Day 1 started out pretty good - they told me that the chemo would be 5 hours ( pretty standard) but it was only 3 hours. That's because one of the drugs Adriamycin ( referred to informally as the Red Devil - it is bright red) is pushed by the nurse into the vein rather than dripped. So it takes a much shorter time. The regimen starts with an oral anti nausea pill then in the drip some saline, steroids and another anti-nausea med just to get you started. Then comes the Red Devil push and then finishes with a Cytoxin drip. This is the AC part of the AC-Taxol. The first four treatments will be AC.

I drove home safely but once I got home I kept getting hit with waves of dizziness, spaciness, queasiness and then drowsiness. I took a full 2 hour nap in the late afternoon and then got the waves again. I had a pretty incoherent phone call with a friend! I'm thinking that Day 1 will be an "alone day" - not quite fit for company!

Day 2 has been much better. Anti-nausea pills have kicked in and while I don't have a giant appetite, I can certainly feel hunger and can eat most healthy things today. Fish seems to still be off limits - something about the smell - which is a bummer because I love fish!

I went to work and worked a good chunk of the day.

Two appts:
First an aspiration - down to 30cc's so I'm hopeful my lymph is figuring out a new route back.
Second, I had a Neulasta shot to beef up my neutrophils (WBC) to keep from getting immunosuppressed. I have heard that Day 3 is the peak nausea plus the peak pain from the neulasta doing it's job and inciting the bone marrow to crank up the neutrophil production. That means bone pain on Day 3. But if bone pain means great neutrophil counts then bring it on! I'll report back on that :)

And today I had 2 visits from members of my food posse - Thanks!!!!:

• Melanie brought her famous carrot/ginger/miso soup plus Thai green curry of yams and summer squash and Kale ( my favorite anti-cancer food) plus gifts from our shared CSA box.
• Melissa and Angus cooked a vegetarian pasta with Ezekiel complete protein pasta a beautiful salad with Angus' special dressing, and peach/banana homemade frozen yogurt. It was yummy.

A very good Day!