chemo class

Since everyone responds differently to their chemotherapy, there's really no way to know how I will take it until I begin. It was a small class. There were two women besides Jack and myself. The nurse first went over general stuff and then gave us pamphlets that go into more detail. Most of this stuff was repeat information. It was either given to me with the boat load of papers and pamphlets I got when this all began, or I learned about it somewhere along the way. There were really no surprises today.
The chemo drugs I'm taking for my first 4 treatments are Adriamycin and Cytoxan. They both have similar side effects. Mainly lowered blood counts,nausea and vomiting, and hair loss. There are other side effects as well, but these seem to be the most common. They try really hard to help you with the nausea and vomiting. I have 2 different prescriptions that I will take for 4 days after each treatment to help combat it. One of them is a steroid and they say it is very helpful. They also give an intravenous drug during chemo to help with nausea. To help boost the lowered blood counts I need an injection of a drug called Neulasta the day following each treatment. This drug is available to me through my mail order prescription plan, which is cool because that means that I will actually be giving the injection to myself. That saves me a trip back to the Doctor the next day. If white blood cells are too low I could be turned away from treatment on my scheduled day. She said they do their best to keep you on schedule. Let's pray that I stay on schedule, the sooner I get through this the better!
The chemotherapy room at Cancer Care Assoc. is large and very busy all the time. The treatment chairs are like lazy boy recliners. Each recliner has a chair beside it for a visitor. Basically one visitor at a time. Jack will be with me the first time around at least. I start at 1:00 on thursday and they say it will take just about 2 hours. I'll let you know how it goes. This weekend will be an experiment on how I handle it. I'll check in with you on the weekend and let you know. Thanks for caring.