August 9, 2010 - Today was the day that I started the treatment for my condition. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty nervous about what was going to happen when I got there and completely expected the worst. I've done some research on the medicines that I'd be given and heard some first hand accounts of the side effects so I was fully prepared for a sh!t storm.
We arrived a little before 9:00am and were ushered back into the infusion room. There were about twenty La-Z-Boy Healthcare Edition recliners. They made a giant letter U around the outside walls of the room. Each chair had a tray for books/magazines/laptops. There was also a night stand for lack of a better term and a chair for a visitor. My nurse Rose came over and introduced herself. She is a sweet older lady that made me feel right at ease. I immediately felt a repoir with her and we started joking around. The infusion room is a pretty somber place and I caught a few people cracking smiles while we were having our exchanges. I was clearly the youngest patient in there today by several decades so it made me feel good to be able to make a few people smile. Rose explained the eight different drugs that would be administered to me. The first was benadryl to combat allergic reactions to the first cancer killer, four anti-nausea medications, then the two cancer killing agents, and finally the blood vessel inhibitor. Since I'm not a physician, this is obviously a simplified description of the individual drugs' purposes, but it will suffice for this writing's purpose.
I'm really glad that they had a wireless network that I could connect to because it allowed me to be online for most of the six hours that I was there. I had a few jovial conversations with friends and was able to catch up on some things that I missed over the weekend. I also was able to start working a little more diligently on the blog postings for this past weekend's festivities. Lunch time came and went and we hadn't eaten anything. Finally around 1400 hours Laela went and bought us a couple of bags of peanut M&M's. It was nice. While we were on the Great Bukkit Tour 2010, every time that we stopped at a gas station she and I each shared a bag of peanut M&M's. It was nice to have a little reminder of what a good time we head while we were on holiday.
While I'm only three hours out from the administration of the meds, it'd be a little bit premature to declare "Mission Accomplished"; however, I don't feel bad. Not even a little. The worst part for me was the Benadryl because I hate the drowsy feeling that I get from it. Hell, when we left the doctors office we headed to Taco Bell and I had a chili cheese burrito and two taco supremes all with fire sauce. I'm also planning to try to take a short walk this evening if I'm still feeling up to it.
Rumor has it that the meds will take a couple of days to start kicking my ass so I'll be keeping a close eye on it and writing about my experiences. Thanks for reading.
I'll close with this quote is from the song Brothers and Sisters by John Moreland and the Black Gold Band. It's kind of how I've been feeling since the apprehension about today set in on me last night.
"and if it all goes to hell tomorrow, we'll stand together and raise our hands, and we'll sing"
