On Wednesday I went for my first Chemo session, a bit apprehensive because it’s unknown territory and you hear all sorts of negative things from people who either had chemo or know someone who has!
IT’s made more tricky right now because of Covid-19 and I had to go alone, ring a bell to get in and wear a mask etc… Marion drove me through and waited in the car in case I was sickly on the way back and couldn’t drive, very grateful for that.
The staff were lovely and put me at ease right away. My nurse was a lovely lady called Vee who had just come to the area 3 weeks ago from London and before that from Zambia. The Henderson Suite in Whitehaven is a lovely space, very bright and cheery considering what people are being treated for.
I got a cup of tea and some biscuits with the meds for sickness that I had to take before the treatment started, then blood pressure and temperature checks. Finally, Vee put some heated bean bags on my hand to encourage my veins to spring up! The first vein wasn’t too good, so it was a bit of a false start and the needle was inserted into a different one successfully and they flushed water through to start with. I got some lunch while I was being treated! And Vee was lovely to chat to.
She then used 5 syringes and gently pushed the liquid through the vein. Three of them were bright red! The last 2 clear ones made me a bit light headed and woozy, but it passed quickly and they finished off with more water flushing through. That was me done and off home I went with steroids, anti-sickness pills and injections to boost my immunity.
After a couple of hours I felt a bit nauseous and got extremely tired – a kind of heavy tiredness, more than normal. I fell asleep on the sofa at 6pm! Woke at 8 and went to bed, where I slept until 6am solidly. Felt slightly nauseous so got up and took a pill, then went back to bed and slept again until 9am.
When I got up this time I felt fine, so just started to go about normal things. Tool all the tablets as prescribed and did a few Teams meetings with work, ate small regular meals and felt pretty normal. Fingers crossed.
Last night I didn’t sleep quite so well as I was very hot – but the weather was very warm so not sure if was the chemo effects or it was just really hot! But felt fine again this morning until Amazon messed up my gift voucher order for Marion’s birthday! It made me angrier than it should have, so I wonder if my mood has been affected – possibly!
Also I am a bit nervous about doing the first self injection into my tummy today. I have to take paracetamol first as it is supposed to hurt my bones. Once the first one is over I know I will be OK, it’s that unknown rearing it’s heard again. I’m doing it shortly, so this blog is calming me down a bit before I go ahead.
I also decided to shave my head before the hair falls out. I’m told it takes a couple of weeks to fall out, but I can feel that it’s different now – more brittle and very dry, so there is a hair shaver on the way in the post. No chance of getting a hairdresser to do it at the moment!
All new experiences!
Barbara Murray Art 