Treatment Cycle 1 - Day 4
In thinking more about my surprisingly uplifting experience on Thursday with my first treatment, I realized that another very important element of the positive environment is the "caregivers" (that's what they call the person you bring with you to chemo). It's not often that you get to be surrounded by people who all truly love each other, but that's what it felt like in the treatment room. I saw people of all different relationships - sister, friend, niece, wife, mother, and others that were harder to determine - but one and all, they were the people that the patients chose to have by their sides, and they chose to be there to support their loved ones.
Seth, of course, was my "caregiver" - if I have to spend eight hours tied down to a chair, there is no one I would rather have there with me. He went home once to get me my iPad, which I had forgotten in the morning rush, and he went to Milo & Olive to get us lunch, but other than that he just stayed with me and kept me company. I read and he worked in the morning, and in the afternoon we watched "Battlestar Galactica" together. Since we couldn't really snuggle close and watch on one iPad like we do at home, we decided to each watch on our own iPad, pressing play on the count of three so that we would be synchronized. It felt like something children might do, unimportant but somehow meaningful. Despite the less than ideal circumstances, it was actually a treat to get to be alone together for so long at one time - it's not something parents of newborns typically get to do.
We met another patient at the treatment center who is in the same clinical trial as I am and also in Arm B, but she's on her fifth cycle, almost done with the neoadjuvant phase. She was chipper and full of enthusiasm, which was very encouraging, and she confirmed that her side effects have been very mild. She said she was tired and a bit nauseated for a few days after the first treatment, but since then her energy been unaffected - she even went on a ten mile hike the day after one recent treatment. She invited me to her support group, and I think I'll go. I've been a little surprised that it hasn't come up with any of my doctors or nurses before, as I was under the impression that support groups are an integral part of the cancer experience.
It's Day 4 now and I still haven't felt anything too unusual so far. I might have been a little nauseated yesterday, but it was so mild I couldn't even tell if I really was or if I just thought I was because the other patient put it into my head. Just in case, I took one of the prochlorperazine pills Maddie prescribed for me for nausea, and whatever I was feeling went away. I was also a little tired, but I've been a little tired most days for five months - this is a side effect of being a new mom, not of cancer or its treatment!
As we left the treatment center on Thursday, I realized that amazingly, I don't have any cancer-related activities scheduled until my next treatment on October 9. It's a peaceful silence after the cacophony of tests, appointments, and procedures that has filled our life for the last month. I hope to spend my time from now until then just being with Ike and Seth, taking long walks, doing yoga, reading, cooking, and resting.
Seth, of course, was my "caregiver" - if I have to spend eight hours tied down to a chair, there is no one I would rather have there with me. He went home once to get me my iPad, which I had forgotten in the morning rush, and he went to Milo & Olive to get us lunch, but other than that he just stayed with me and kept me company. I read and he worked in the morning, and in the afternoon we watched "Battlestar Galactica" together. Since we couldn't really snuggle close and watch on one iPad like we do at home, we decided to each watch on our own iPad, pressing play on the count of three so that we would be synchronized. It felt like something children might do, unimportant but somehow meaningful. Despite the less than ideal circumstances, it was actually a treat to get to be alone together for so long at one time - it's not something parents of newborns typically get to do.
~
We met another patient at the treatment center who is in the same clinical trial as I am and also in Arm B, but she's on her fifth cycle, almost done with the neoadjuvant phase. She was chipper and full of enthusiasm, which was very encouraging, and she confirmed that her side effects have been very mild. She said she was tired and a bit nauseated for a few days after the first treatment, but since then her energy been unaffected - she even went on a ten mile hike the day after one recent treatment. She invited me to her support group, and I think I'll go. I've been a little surprised that it hasn't come up with any of my doctors or nurses before, as I was under the impression that support groups are an integral part of the cancer experience.
~
It's Day 4 now and I still haven't felt anything too unusual so far. I might have been a little nauseated yesterday, but it was so mild I couldn't even tell if I really was or if I just thought I was because the other patient put it into my head. Just in case, I took one of the prochlorperazine pills Maddie prescribed for me for nausea, and whatever I was feeling went away. I was also a little tired, but I've been a little tired most days for five months - this is a side effect of being a new mom, not of cancer or its treatment!
As we left the treatment center on Thursday, I realized that amazingly, I don't have any cancer-related activities scheduled until my next treatment on October 9. It's a peaceful silence after the cacophony of tests, appointments, and procedures that has filled our life for the last month. I hope to spend my time from now until then just being with Ike and Seth, taking long walks, doing yoga, reading, cooking, and resting.
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