That Was An Interesting Start

Yesterday was Donna’s 4th and final chemo session. I went with her for her first and was going to go to all them, but she rather I just drop her off, come get her afterwards and then spend the afternoon with her. This worked for sessions 2 and 3. It was a good plan because for the first two sessions she didn’t start to feel bad until later in the afternoon. We even went out to eat lunch together those 2 days. But during chemo number 3 she started to feel punkish part way through, so she asked if I’d come with her for the last one. To which I readily agreed.

We went out to eat breakfast at the New Moon as usual, she had a bagel and I got one of their giant muffins. We finish the paper and headed over to the cancer center. The first thing they before anything is take some blood and analyse it to see if it is good enough to be zapped down with the chemo drugs. Her numbers came in great, everything was in the normal range with even one a little high. The numbers might even have been better than the ones that were from before the first session. Donna settled in the recliner, I got comfy in a chair beside her and he nurse got the IV started. First up in the IV is saline to keep her hydrated and then they start an anti-nausea agent before they get to the real juice. Donna has always brought some light snacks to nibble on during the treatments and this morning she ate some watermelon pieces first thing.

Not two minutes after finishing the watermelon Donna reached for the trash can near the chair and threw it right back up. The nurse ran off to get some towels to clean up and I got her a wet paper towel to sooth her forehead. Just about the time we got everything settled back down, Donna grabbed the can again and Mr. bagel joined the watermelon. This, all the while she is getting the anti-nausea medicine in the IV! The nurse went off for a couple more towels and brought back the doctor. The doctor came in and said, “OK, you are not feeling good we’ll postpone the chemo until Monday or Tuesday.” Donna said, “NO WAY! I’m here let’s get the show on the road.” He said, “Maybe it is just nerves. If you want the chemo now, fine.” She said maybe it was nerves, but she really hadn’t been feeling well since Wednesday and now that she had thrown up she felt pretty good.

After that interesting start, things went smoothly for the rest of the session.