The first chemo

(Wrote this in Word in the car on the way home to Nottingham-town.)

Daddy-o has zoomed up to drive me and mother home – just over Tyne bridge now. Am praying I won’t get travel-sick; I normally have a robust stomach, but then I normally don’t have a lot of vomit-inducing drugs circulating in my system…

Yesterday was not the greatest day of my life – not the worst either but somewhere in the bottom 10. It all started off pretty well – Mum and I got to the chemo ward for 8.30, filled in consent forms and then went off for coffee at Olive & Bean (and shopping for new Converses - see below) while they were making up my tasty cytotoxic drug cocktail.

A note on this: I’m having ABVD chemo, the gold standard in treatment of Hodgkin’s.

A = adriomycin (more commonly called doxorubicin, but DBVD just isn’t as catchy is it?)

B = bleomycin

V = vinblastine

D = dacarbazine

I'm starting off on 3 cycles (i.e. 3 months' worth) of this before I have my second PET-scan and they work out where to go from there.

My lovely nurse put my cannula in, flushed it and then gave me a shot of anti-emetic (not sure but I think it was Ondansetron). First one was 540 ml dacarbazine on a drip - see above. My god I hate dacarbazine already…it makes your veins go into vasospasm so you get these crampy pains all along your arm. They put a sheet over my arm to keep it warm, which apparently helps a bit. Maybe next time I should take a heated blanket… They had to slow it down every time I complained about my arm hurting so it took 5 hours to drip in, starting at 11am and finishing at about 4pm. Fortunately the time was passed by eating a yummy chicken and mango chutney salad from Olive & Bean, bantering with visiting flatmates (thanks Minti and Sophie :)...), chatting with ward nurses and showing mother my interrailing pics from last summer.

After flushing that through with saline, and giving me some hydrocortisone (a steroid to help with inflammation I think) it was on to the ABV part which only took half an hour through the cannula. Adriomycin went in first. It’s an alarmingly red colour and yup my pee did go red. Or maybe rose pink…exciting eh. Bleomycin next, then Vinblastine. I didn’t notice any ill-effects at all – at that point.

We wound up with a load of paperwork and dishing out of anti-emetics (Ondansetron and Metaclopromide), thermometers and mouthwash.

Mum and I walked home after a quick trip to M&S to get ingredients for this recipe: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2006/01/salmon-pineapple-brown-rice-bake.html

We made dinner for Janet, Minti, Sophie and Lydia who popped over. Unfortunately I can’t talk about dinner anymore. In fact I doubt I will ever be able to eat/contemplate this recipe again because the nausea kicked in just before dinner. This is rather unfair because it really did seem like a nice recipe, but – tainted forever I’m afraid. (However, I think you’d like it, so do make it if you’re inspired.) First I noticed I wasn’t feeling v. hungry, then I noticed I’d gone kind of yellowy, then I tried to eat some dinner, gave up, changed into PJs and lay on the sofa watching Monty Python’s Meaning of Life. I took an Ondansetron, but 5 mins later we’d got to the part where John Cleese’s biology teacher is teaching his pupils about reproduction in the most cringeworthy way ever, and I had to rush out to be sick. I was just so shocked to finally find out the truth about the birds and bees…..only kidding, it was the bleomycin/dacarbazine/one of those bastards. V. irritated to lose my Ondansetron…got mum to ring the out-of-hours service who were great and told me to take a Metaclopromide, then an Ondansetron in the morning.

By this point I was feeling v. hot, cold, sweaty, fluey, tired…To be honest, I had a cold anyway and the chemo seemed to just accentuate and heighten it into flu/Black Death. (also the BNF tells me bleomycin can make people feel a bit shaky and feverish.) So I went and boiled myself in the bath and crawled off to bed.

This morning I felt awesome! I woke up at 8am, took an Ondansetron and then dozed off again. Maybe not 100% but so much better for a sleep…the only odd thing is that I wasn’t hungry in the slightest. Most of my acquaintances could tell you that after not eating anything since lunch the previous day, I would probably trample over my grandmother in my haste to get some breakfast. (Sorry Grandma, but there it is.) For some reason all I fancied was a cup of tea…then at 11am I thought well I should eat something, so I stole a lot of Janet’s salt and vinegar ricecakes. Mmmm I tell you they are GOOD. Had a bit of apple and cheese too.

I think my tastebuds are probably dying one by one; they feel a bit coated and dulled. I can’t really describe it but there’s a slightly slimy taste in my mouth. Something else I've noticed - though it might just be my imagination - is that my fingers feel a bit funny and numb, like pins and needles. Oh well peripheral neuropathy is another of the many side effects I can expect... yippee!!!

Got dressed and maquillaged, then the lovely mother and I went for coffee and a spot of shopping. Got my TypeTalk phone from social services this morning too – it’s so I can talk to the staff at the hospital when I need them, e.g. for advice about infections, because chemo infections can come on pretty fast. Being deaf I can’t use the phone and I don’t want to have to rely on other people all the time to ring for me. TypeTalk seems pretty workable (I called Grandma at home and learned that she is making me chicken soup tonight – just what I wanted!)

I had some soup and crackers for lunch. Stomach still a bit weird and I have a few cramps in my lower abdomen, but otherwise ok. Touch wood!! Rest of the afternoon spent pack-a-lacking for home and TLC.

Enough of this side-effects/daily life babble – now I want to thank everyone who has sent me e-mails, facebook messages, texts, cards, presents, offers of chemo-buddying, general love, hugs, kisses. They mean more than you know, honestly. And thanks for reading this blog – everyone is welcome to read it – it’s so you all know how I’m getting on. (And so I get famous. Don’t forget the fame….heheh.) THANK YOU :)

This is just a selection of all the lovely cards I've had:

Will keep y’all posted on how I get on at home in the next few days. Going back up for the next chemo in a couple of weeks – or maybe a few days before, as I think they want to measure my white cell counts and see how I’m doing against infections and all that. If peeps are around the North-East in the first week of the medic/dentist Easter hols, let me know….

Then again, the family might drive me insane so I might be back on Monday. Hoho.