Thursday January 10, I received the first of 12 planned chemo treatments. It is a weird and uncomfortable mental process to realize that you are going to submit yourself to regular poisonings. I am trying to think of it like the surgery -- a necessary requirement, no questions to be asked, no looking back. Clearly, the statistics show that a person with my type of cancer has a far better chance of not getting metastatic disease when radiation, chemotherapy and hormonal therapy are all used in addition to surgery. It is, as the saying goes, "a no-brainer."

I was happy to learn that each patient has a particular nurse who will consistently work the case. "My" nurse was formerly a legal assistant for several years. She worked for two of the large personal injury law firms in Pensacola and her daughter is in law school. I think the office paired us intentionally.

Of course, I was worried about the nausea that I've always associated with chemotherapy. My oncologist and others familiar with cancer treatment have been encouraging, suggesting that I wouldn't have any problems. There were two separate anti-nausea medications given prior to the active drug, along with two prescription pills to be taken starting the next day. Chris and I were both hungry, so we stopped on the way home to buy sandwiches and pick up the pills.

After the approximately 2-hour process, I felt fine, but sleepy, so I retired to bed after eating my sandwich. When I stirred a few hours later, I ached all over. My head hurt, my back hurt, my neck hurt, my shoulders hurt. Yuck. I took 2 acetominephen and tried to go back to sleep. However, I did not feel nauseated! By Friday morning, the aching was much reduced. I got up and went to work. I took a precautionary anti-nausea pill in the morning, but felt fine all day. Great, I thought. Those anti-nausea medications really are wonderful.

By Friday evening, I was a bit tired. I went to sleep early only to wake up a few hours later feeling very sick with nausea. I took another anti-nausea pill and hoped to keep it down long enough for it to work. Saturday was a blur of aching, nausea, pills, sipping water and ginger tea, and trying to sleep between bouts of very uncomfortable nausea. Sunday started just as bad, but the nausea eased a bit through the day (I even watched some football, which is not the highest priority for me.) Finally, on Monday morning, I felt OK again. Not entirely normal, but OK. I'll take it -- with gratitude.


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