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SecondChemo
Friday 29th June 2007; Maureen arrived at my house at 8 o'clock timing it just right so we had enough time to have a quick drink before setting off for the hospital. We arrived at the hospital with just 5 minutes to spare and sat in the waiting area until they were ready for me. The waiting area is quite nice A TV is positioned at one end of the waiting room and like most of the house at this time in a morning had GMTV blurting out. There are lots of high backed chairs and a few small coffee tables that had quite a few magazines placed on them. More magazines could be found near the entrance of the waiting room which also contained a sink along with tea and coffee making facilities. The tea and coffee were for the patients and their guest with just one sign above the kettle saying ‘Cuppa Soups for Patients only’. Everyone was making good use of this service and I noticed that each person washed, dried and put away their cups after they had used them. Maureen and I were no exception. The waiting room was getting quite full and everyone was friendly and eager to give advice. It was here that I learnt that sometimes you could be sat waiting for several hours as sometimes the pharmacy hadn't prepared your chemo drugs which were made up pacifically for each person, taking into account, the type of cancer that they have, the severity along with their height and weight. Another factor for having to wait a long time is if your blood levels hadn't risen enough and therefore required for you to have another blood test as you arrived. The pharmacy wouldn't even consider making up your prescription of chemo drugs until your oncologist had been given your results and he had given the go for them to make it up.. If this happened you were in for a very long wait indeed.
Thankfully I didn't have to wait too long, my blood levels were good and at 9.30am my name was called to go through for me to have my second lot of chemo. I had the Anne again and the first thing she said when she saw me was “Told you your hair would be gone by the time I saw you again, Was it two weeks”? I started laughing as I nodded my head and was immediately put at ease by her. Is this a nurse’s trick to get you relaxed? Anne got everything ready and then along with another nurse checked off all the drugs in my pack. The prescription was handed over to Maureen to take along to the pharmacy for the steroid drugs and anti-sickness tablets that I would be taking home.
Where did my veins go? They were there large as life a moment ago. "Don't worry, it's quite common" Anne said as she instructed me to go to the sink and soak my hands in warm water. Honestly; while I was sat in the waiting room the veins on the back of my hands were sticking out loads, but as soon as they saw that bloody needle they legged it. They were having none of it and probably ran off home to hide in the airing cupboard out of sight and out of danger from any needle that wanted to stab at them. After a good ten minutes at the sink very slowly my veins came visible again and as I sat down Anne very nicely wrapped my arm in a little heated bag to keep my veins nice and warm. After all the fuss about my veins running a mile Anne found and hit a vein straight away 'Ouch' it still hurt though for that couple of minutes while she juggled the cannula about getting it all set up and strapped to my arm. Finally the Saline was attached and then slowly the anti-sickness and all the other little ampoules of drugs were injected through the cannula with the saline.
Epirubicin the dreaded red stuff here we come! Surprise surprise; Anne was right! It did feel a lot easier this time and there was no burning sensation as she slowly injected it into my vein. As before she nattered all the time telling Maureen and me her life story and being even jollier than the last time due to it being her last day of work as she was taking early retirement. Today was going to be the last time that I would see her; I do hope the nurse who I have next time is as nice as Anne. The bag of cyclophosphamide was started and then last but not least the last bag of saline to flush all the drugs through and voila I am done and free to go. After wishing Anne all the best for her retirement Maureen and I headed off.
I have the same feeling as last time, the dizzy drunken feeling and do feel a little flushed but again I feel great and very pleased of how it has gone. Definitely better than last time. The whole process only took 2 and a half hour’s which compared to the 4 hours it took last time is a great improvement. Hopefully I won't develop any additional side effects to the ones that I experienced last time as they were manageable and found that the only one that I found to be; I can't say bad as it was more irritating than anything was the tiredness.
Maureen and I had a couple of hours to spare before having to be at the Gynaecology department so we decided to go and do a bit of shopping. This is where I found a little straw hat costing only £2.00. I have never been one for hats, the last time I wore one was for Martin and Lucy’s wedding day. (Lee’s Brother and Sister-In-law) you know one of them nice hats for special occasions. This hat is a straw hat and under the circumstances I decided that a hat would be a good idea as I thought I could wear it in the garden instead of my wig or scarf.
After shopping we went to visit Martin and Lucy’s who after seeing my wig for the first time were amazed at how it actually looked. Lucy is 7 months pregnant and Maureen and I have a very suspicious feeling that both Martin and Lucy know the sex of their baby but are unwilling to sharing the news with us. They are both very adamant that they don’t know. Why am I suspicious? Well! There is the fact that when I ask Lucy she starts laughing while saying that she doesn’t know. Then there is the fact that she has been buying a lot of mint green for the baby. The nursery has been decorated in mint green. Normally white, cream and lemon are bought when the sex is not known isn’t it? So with this bit of evidence I strongly believe that both Lucy and Martin know that they are having a son. Well only 2 more months to find out if my suspicions are right.
After a nice long chat and a cup of coffee it was time to head back off to the hospital. By now I was really feeling the effects of the chemo as the chemo was really making me feel quite dizzy and uncomfortable with feeling hot and clammy one minute and then the next feeling very cold. My head was spinning with a feeling similar to that of motion sickness and I so much wanted to rip my wig off my head, it was annoying me and starting to itch but that all said; all I wanted to do was to keep moving and to keep busy so not to let my mind stay too long on the not so nice effects that I was now feeling. Without saying a word of how I was feeling Maureen and I headed back off to the hospital.
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