{"id":195,"date":"2010-11-15T19:52:48","date_gmt":"2010-11-16T03:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hodgkins.caryschmidt.com\/?p=195"},"modified":"2010-11-15T19:52:48","modified_gmt":"2010-11-16T03:52:48","slug":"five-hours-after-first-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hodgkins.caryschmidt.com\/?p=195","title":{"rendered":"five hours after first treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note to Readers: One of the purposes of this blog is to help someone else that might deal with Hodgkins in the future. For that reason, some of what I will post is just to document the \u00a0experience in real time and in real terms. These are not complaints in any sense, just descriptions for the sake of helping someone else prepare. If you are sensitive to such things or if you misunderstand my heart, please don’t read these particular posts. (Generally they will be the ones without pics.)<\/em>
\n<\/em>
\nThe chemo being used in my case is called AVBD\u2014you can google that and find lots of information on the medications and their use and effects. The first three of the medications were given through an injection into an IV line. Each one took the nurse about 15 minutes or so to inject. I had read that a couple of the medications burn when going in\u2014maybe that’s the case after more treatments, or maybe I just didn’t experience that. Upon injection my arm was just cold. The worst part of the injections was getting the IV put in, and then having to sit with my arm in an uncomfortable position for a long time.
\nThe fourth medication was given from a drip bag that took an hour. After that, the line was flushed, the IV disconnected, and I was on my way home. I did make one big mistake\u2014I went directly to eat and ate too much. It was a late lunch, and right now I’m wishing I had taken it light\u2014real light. (My bones may be made of steel but my digestive system definitely isn’t!) I left the clinic feeling great, but gradually over the following six hours, things changed. (I’m feeling more like the Redskins, who are presently being stomped by the Eagles in Monday night’s game.)
\nWhile this first treatment, so far, hasn’t been unbearable, I have felt generally like someone injected a bottle of drano into my veins and my body is starting to revolt. Some people say “flu-like symptom”\u2014but it’s different than that. It’s just the general feeling of all the little cell guys in your body going, “What the stink is going on here!?” I did get sick, in spite of taking the anti nausea meds, but at this point that was probably my own stupid fault. I feel A LOT better right now with nothing in my stomach.
\nThe first negative impact that showed up was a headache. Tylenol and a head patch helped that pretty well. Food commercials and odd smells play against your brain as well. But here’s the GREAT NEWS…
\nCancer cells are starting to DIE! YES! That’s AWESOME! For eight weeks I’ve been walking around with these little microscopic dudes attacking me and growing inside of me\u2014every breath reminding me what’s wrapped around my trachea\u2014and that is worse<\/em> than being sick from chemo! Game on! It’s a great pleasure to know the war is under way and cancer is now losing! Thank you, Lord\u2014for medical research, American health care, praying friends, and your good grace!
\nOne more note\u2014if you’re having more than a few chemo treatments and blood draws, request a port. This will make the whole process of being poked and prodded a lot easier. I’m planning on having one installed in the next couple of weeks. Opinions vary because they are expensive for the health care provider, but all the front line people (like the nurses, etc.) advise “…get a port.”
\nMore later…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note to Readers: One of the purposes of this blog is to help someone else that might deal with Hodgkins in the future. For that reason, some of what I will post is just to document the \u00a0experience in real … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hodgkins.caryschmidt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hodgkins.caryschmidt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hodgkins.caryschmidt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hodgkins.caryschmidt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hodgkins.caryschmidt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hodgkins.caryschmidt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hodgkins.caryschmidt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hodgkins.caryschmidt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hodgkins.caryschmidt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}