So today I officially started chemo - seems like a good time to put up a blog post. Unfortunately it is happening at 2:30am so bear with me if things get a bit weird.
Treatment Plan
So my treatment plan involves 3 or 4, 3 week cycles, which breaks down like so.
| M | T | W | Th | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | 6 hours | 6 hours | 6 hours | 6 hours | 6 hours |
| Week 2 | 1(ish) hours | — | — | — | — |
| Week 3 | 1(ish) hours | — | — | — | — |
That first week I get a combination of 3 meds on Monday, and 2 meds the remaining days. On my 1(ish) hours days on the "off" weeks I only get one med (the extra Monday med) which really could only take 15 minutes or so, but we'll probably throw in a bag of hydration to help keep me feeling well.
Chemo - The Prequel
Last week (the week before treatment) sucked. Not like cancer wise, just in general. What you don't realize about starting chemo is all of the additional appointments that go into actually starting it. Last week I had 2 different appointments every day except Thursday (which just had 1) so it was crazy busy, running all over the place to get different things taken care of.
I hated it.
In a strange way I have been actually looking forward to starting chemo this week because I just have to be in one location doing one thing instead of constantly running around town. Talk to me in a couple of days when all the meds have done their thing and I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune, but for now that still stands.
Chemo
So what you don't realize until you or someone you know does it, it takes a while for you to get all of the shitty effects of chemo, so day 1 chemo is totally fine. I chatted with the nurse and everybody around me — tried to figure out if my chemo-neighbor knew my parents — watched some Price is Right (which I'm looking forward to for the duration of treatment), did some work, walked around, got some cafe food, yada yada yada.
I did meet a water polo ref (Mr. Lubbers) who was visiting a patient kitty-corner from me and he saw the water polo shirt I happened to be wearing and before I said anything to him he snagged me to say hi. He's an insanely nice guy, great guy really. He's so nice that now I'm angry that I can't be angry and yell if he makes a call I disagree with (or at least as angry).
It's so much easier when you can treat refs as inanimate objects, but nooooo... now I know one of them and he's super nice so now I have to do the right thing and admit their all human and treat them with the respect that they deserve. Dang it. :)
Don't Forget to Vote
Well, I think I've been up enough to be able to tricky my body back to thinking it's time for bed and not just a nap. But before I go, don't forget to vote tomorrow. I would obviously (if you follow me elsewhere) wish for you to not vote for Trump, and would be-grudgingly hope you would vote of Hillary, a large part of that is the future of my health care. Now that I have cancer not being able to be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition is a big thing. Hillary wants to keep that provision, Trump wants to do away with it (and assumes the competition that would happen from removing state lines would take care of it, but you know ass u me).
But I also don't want to turn this into a political flame war, just go vote for whoever you want. I have cancer and am waking up early to get to the polls before my 6 hour treatment so whatever excuse you might try and use probably sucks.
Social Media Plugs
I'll try to make these kind of updates a semi-regular thing, but you can also hit me up on social media for smaller on-the-go updates, so look me up on whatever platforms you're on. I'll also eventually do an email notification for this blog so you can stay up that way, just haven't gotten around to it yet.