December 2020 Chemo Club

chelsea1

Well, here we go. I started my journey today with chemo, the first of 12 weekly infusions. I'm getting Taxol and Herceptin. I was very anxious but the nurses were wonderful and put me at ease. They were so experienced they could answer all my nervous questions. I actually got Herceptin first because you don't need to wait 30 minutes after the premeds (benadryl, zofran, steroids, and pepcid) with Herceptin. The first infusion takes 90 minutes but all the rest, every three weeks for a year, will be 30 minutes. Taxol, which usually takes an hour, took a little longer today because they wanted it to drip slowly at first to see if I reacted to it in any way. The only thing I felt was a little warmth when they first started the Herceptin, but that might have been the steroids or benadryl they had given me in pill form. Otherwise I was fine.

I arrived with a rolling suitcase with a Trader Joe's bag which contained NatraCare cold therapy socks, 2 pairs of Icinger gloves and frozen fruit bars. I needed a suitcase because I just got my port implanted yesterday and the doctor said not to carry anything over 10 lbs for the next 10 days! I got most of the ideas of what to buy from these discussions and I'm so grateful. It didn't work perfectly this first time, but I'll be better prepared the next time. It turns out the TJ bag wasn't really insulated, so I have to get a better bag. And because Taxol wasn't the first infusion, nothing was as cold as I wanted when I needed to use it. The fruit bars had all melted but the nurse gave me a cup full of ice to use instead. Unfortunately, with the Icinger gloves it was hard to pick the cup up until I realized I could slip my hand out of the glove, reach for the cup and then put the glove back on. Also, I wasn't smart when i bought the slippers. I bought one pair an an extra set of inserts, but the instructions say the inserts must be put in the freezer inside the slippers. Since I didn't have a second set of slippers, I didn't bother freezing the extra inserts. I'm going to see if I can exchange the extra set for a second pair of slippers with the inserts. Not a big deal but I am anxious to prevent neuropathy.

I feel okay as I'm writing this now. The nurse said I'll probably be okay tomorrow but might crash big time on Friday when the steroids wear off. I'm planning on resting this weekend. I did make the decision to get my head shaved tomorrow since I didn't want to cold-cap and my hair falling out is inevitable. I wanted to control at least one thing in this process. And to make lemonades out of a whole lot of lemons, I bought two really cute wigs, one of them at blonde! At 71, I'm ready to see if blondes really do have more fun!

This is a week of a lot of firsts for me and I would love to hear from other December chemo sisters. Let's go through this journey together. I think it's wonderful to have a safe, intimate space to talk about experiences and feelings, and to help each other through this!