Thursday, 19 February 2009

Chemo

Hi Bloggers

Captain Chemo here - denizen of the deep (or was it Nemo?)

Today as most of you know by now I had my first session of chemo.

First I had another x ray and an appointment with the consultant. She had a listen and said my lungs sounded fine and that my kidney results were excellent! (Good signs for the future)


I also had to sign a consent form for them to proceed with poisoning me. All sorted it was off to Ward F5 for the treatment.




I had two half litres of chemo interspersed with saline flushes. It was fed in via a drip and pump to a tube inserted via the back of the hand, and took about three quarters of an hour or so, per drug to administer. the pump is the blue job on the stand on the outside photos.
The blue thing in the centre photo's background is a cooling cap to avoid or lessen the risk of losing ones hair with other types of chemo. Yeh I know, it's a bit late for me as there's not a lot left.

The first drug was called Gemcitabine, and looked just like the Saline solution.
The second one was called Carboplatin, and this one had to be kept in the dark as it degrades quickly in daylight and loses its potency.
You can find out more about these if you follow the link below


It was a strange sensation as it went in - a burny freezy type of feeling that I could feel travelling up my arm - good stuff! Get in there and sort it all out!
Also I had to sit very still so as to maximise the intake rate which was specified (believe it or not) as part of the treatment - how cool is that?
All in all Maria and I were at the hospital for about five hours as after the treatment finished there were forms to fill in and explanations to be given about the possible side effects and the drugs I was given in order to minimise this.
We got home about six o'clock which was just as well as I felt a huge wave of nausea over take me on the way. Although I'm tired and feel weird I wanted to get this post published asap to save the phone going off all of the time. That doesn't mean I don't love you bloggers because I do; it just saves time with explanations thats all.
Must fly I'm off top meet my potential new best friend - Mr Plastic Bowl
talk soon
steve
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