Second Treatment

I wanted to wait until this treatment to add any further posts, mainly because this first week was smooth and there was little to post. The thing that slowed us down more than anything else last week, was the stifling heat we experienced here in the tri-cities (one day the thermometer hit 113 degrees). Thank goodness we have central air and a heat pump; so we didn't suffer . . . too much.

Last Tuesday a medi-port was "installed" right below her left collar bone. It's a device designed to circumvent the damage chemo can do to wrist veins. About the size of a pecan, it has one surface engineered to accept a needle inserted through the skin; it also has a long plasic tube which is inserted into a chest vein. Lois had more pain with the port insertion than with the mastectomy. Then yesterday, the nurse who tried to insert a needle into the port, couldn't find the edges of her port with her fingers (still too much swelling from the insertion). The second nurse (a supervisor?), brought a longer needle and shoved it right in. Ouch!, but once it was inserted, things settled into a routine session.

We've discovered her anxiety has been keeping her awake on the nights prior to the chemo. She was dog-tired yesterday by the time the appt. rolled around at 1:40. During the session she finally slept some. The benydryl they give prior to the chemo helped; and we got a prescription to help her sleep next Sunday night.

When we got home, we fixed a quick meal; and she laid down on the couch with her pillows and went to sleep. I went upstairs to let her sleep, then at 11pm I went down and woke her up enough to get her to bed.

I knew immediately after she woke up this morning that she wasn't nauseated, fatigued or depressed. She got on the phone, first to check in with her mother, then to call her sister. She's been on the phone for over an hour and it's 8:46 am. Not bad for somebody who had the dreaded "chemo" yesterday!

She's been grousing about a few things on the phone this morning, nothing serious; but I told if she keeps this up, I may have to tell them to "up her dose" next week. We laughed and she continued on.

The Lord willing, we're still doing fine. The weather broke and now we're suffering the chills that come with high 80's/low 90's. The sky is blue again this morning and it looks like another beautiful day. We're thinking about taking our bikes down to one of the many bikepaths and going for a ride.

If I can get her off the phone.

Jim