Round One

Monday morning bright and early the chemo nurse hooked my cyborg implant up to an array of machines with blinking lights via sets of tubing with all sorts of access ports.

She let them pump me full of careful doses of poison for four hours, then sent me home to await the delivery of another blinking machine with its own packet of poison, and another nurse to administer it.

That part would have gone much more smoothly if the delivery driver hadn’t been told 5pm, while I and the nurse were told 2:30.

Odd as it sounds, I felt better leaving the infusion center than I did going in: the week of antibiotics following the port surgery had left my guts a bit unsettled, and the IV antinausea meds cleared that right up. I’ve been diligent in taking the pill versions, and haven’t had any trouble at all.

By the time everything got straightened out and connected on Monday, I felt like I’d been run over by a herd of wildebeast, but that faded, and I even left the house for a couple hours on Tuesday, pump and all, to make an appearance at a conference.

I was unhooked this afternoon after my 46-hour extended dose, and feel not-too-bad. I shoveled some of the snow, in very short doses. My endurance is definitely subpar, but a bit at a time with lots of breaks went okay. And maybe an afternoon nap to smooth it out a bit.

The cold sensitivity, though, that’s something special. Almost immediately after getting the oxaliplaten Monday morning it hit. I can’t drink tap water, let alone ice water, wash my hands in cold water, or rummage for things in the refrigerator, without frostbite prickles or worse. It doesn’t hurt, exactly, but I feel like I’m swallowing shards of ice. So I’m microwaving my tap water, and even my yogurt. This should fade over the next few days, I think.

I know that side effects sometimes don’t appear for a few days after chemo, and that the intensity can increase after multiple doses, but that’s not a horrible place to start.

The ultrasound test scheduled for today was moved to Monday, for various reasons including a whole lot of snow, and the Monday after that is my next round of chemo. Cyborg science experiment, that’s me.