February 19th, 2010

I am back from my second round of chemo and this time everything went faster, yeah! I didn't have a reaction to the Rituxan this time so that took about 90 minutes off of my treatment time. And, as always, the best part of treatment is coming home to my family.

I had my friend, Susan, take pictures so people who are not familiar with the chemo experience can get an idea of what goes on.

There is a lot of waiting around in the world of cancer treatment. One patient may need more time with her/his oncologist or maybe more time is needed in the chemo chair. This means lots of magazine time, DVD watching, and other quiet activities while you are waiting your turn to see the oncologist and then waiting for the chemo treatment.

This is a picture of me waiting to see Dr. Kaplan, my oncologist. He was running late that day so we had to wait an hour to see him. I do have to mention that Dr. Kaplan sees like a very nice and caring man. We haven't really 'clicked' yet but I think we are getting there.

The next step is heading to the chemo center which is one floor up from the oncologist office. It was another hour of waiting and then I was taken into my room for my chemo treatment. Usually a person sits in a chair and does chemo but this time I had asked for a private room and the only one available had a bed and not a chair. This turned out to be a good thing because I was given Benedryl through the IV, as a standard procedure to help with any possible allergic reactions, and it put me right to sleep.


The first step in getting ready for chemo is having a very hot and wet towel put around your arm to help the veins stand out so the IV needle goes in easier. Many people who have cancer have what is called a port. This is a tube which is surgically placed in the body, usually the shoulder/chest area for blood to be taken out and chemo to be put in. The port stays in the entire cancer treatment and an IV is not needed. I don't have a port so I have to have an IV needle put in every time. This is okay with me.



Then the IV is put into my arm and the Rituxan (an antibody inhibitor-stops cancer from spreading) is started. The Rituxan takes about 4 hours to administer. After the Rituxan is finished I get an IV bag of anti-nausea medicine and then the chemo (Bendamustine) is started. The chemo itself only takes about a 45 minutes to administer.




Since we started the Rituxan at 5:30 pm we didn't leave the hospital until 10pm. We were tired and ready for bed. Here I am waving good-bye as I head out the door. The beautiful flowers are from my good friend, Mindy T. She brightened a very stark room with her pink roses in a tea cup. Thanks Mindy.