Been there....

Long day. Arrived at the Cancer Center (CC) at 10 a.m. Of course, we weren't called until 11. Then it was vital signs, check that the port was open, flush it, and wait for the real nurse to show. So by the time I am hooked up, it is maybe 11:30. First, a blast of benadryl, very soporific, but I wanted to stay around to see what was happening so I fought going to sleep. Then a large bag, first of a total of maybe four, to drip, drip, drip, slowly in. They start very slowly to check for allergic reactions. Usually they occur in the first five minutes or so; mine took about an hour to ramp up, starting with itchy eyes, then itchy throat, then itchy skin. I rode it for awhile before deciding it was probably worsening and gave the signal. The nurse immediately shut off the flow and substituted another bag (antidote?) and in 10 min or so the effects were gone. And they said, it was unlikely they would be repeated. (They were right.)

Jan had prepared food (?) for the day for me: magic mineral broth--a great veg broth; ginger tea; apple sauce; dry cheerios. This is one serious lady. I ate it all over the course of the afternoon and loved all of it. In the meanwhile other patients were having their spouses bring in Carls Jr burgers and all manner of bad shit. They also have some snacks and drinks available but it is all pretty bad (Doritos; Cokes), so I stayed pretty much true to course. All the advice we had gotten was good, especially that of being cold. We were supposed to get to the low 80s today but it was cool in the morning and I bit the bullet and put on levis, shoes and sox. (Shoes and sox feel strange.)  I should also have put on a long sleeved shirt! But I had a lovely lap quilt given to me by an Albuquerque church group, a member of which is my good friend, Non Dancing Ed McCullough's piano teacher. That really worked well.

Listening to All Things Considered about 4 p.m. I dropped into the arms of Morpheus and was only awakened by them unhooking me at 5:30. Jan had already been there about 15 min. So we've done one errand on what was a day of running around for her--gettting prescriptions filled, etc, and are back home. (The CC does have WiFi so I may hump this little baby down one of these times.) She is starting dinner prep, so I need to make myself available while I can.

In sum, not too eventful--I know that is subject to change with each passing hour--and the subsequent infusions will be much shorter. So we have started down the chemo road...