January 30, 2023 ~ Day 1
The shrinkage has begun! And I’m all hopped up on steroids at the moment (8:00PM 1/30/23)… they give you a huge cocktail of anti-nausea, antihistamines, and steroids, before they do the chemo drugs, to help prevent side effects and to mostly prevent side effects in the sessions. My appt. Was at 10:00. We arrived at 9:30 and got right in there. Got home a little before 5:30. It was a very long day.
We had so much stuff we looked like the over-prepared parents on the first day of school. We had a cooler, a shopping bag brimming with snacks, a blanket, a neck pillow, a magical staff, 3 iPads, 2 iPhones, and a laptop…
A possible side-effect of one of the chemo drugs that I am being infused with is neuropathy. I could possibly lose some control over my fine motor skills. As a pianist, this is super scary! Teaching piano would be a whole lot harder if I couldn’t feel my fingers, so we are doing everything we can to prevent that from happening. In our over-preparedness, we have a cooler filled with dry ice and small gel packs that fit into therapy mittens and slippers. Basically, we are icing my hands and feet to reduce the blood flow during the treatment, so that we can potentially reduce the possibility of nerve damage.
I put these penguin-looking ice-cold flippers on my hands and feet, requiring the boyfriend to basically be my handmaid for most of the entire 8 hour process. He is being so supportive but he did have to wait on me hand and foot. I felt like queen (at least a little) especially with my MAGICAL Staff!
Side Note: If you ever find yourself trying to sneak a magical staff into a medical facility here are some tips: 1) it is ideal if the staff can break into two parts 2) poster tubes make fairly inconspicuous carrying cases.
Christian is pretty heavy into this AI Art thing. There is a process where you can erase part of the picture and have the AI fill-in what is missing. So of course he turned me into the chemo Queen! He loves how this whole AI Art thing lets him blend reality and fantasy, the chair becomes a throne, the staff becomes extra magic… and I am powerful enough to beat this thing!
More chemo journal to come…
