Dear Cancer, you suck!: One down three to go

I had my first chemotherapy treatment on Thursday October 16, 2014. I have to admit I was VERY nervous to get the treatment but it ended up not being bad. I was almost shaking right before I got my port accessed. Everyone there was extremely nice and my nurse was wonderful. The worst part was probably the waiting to start treatment.. my appointment was for 8 am and my mom and I got there at 7:45 am we had to wait for insurance to approve my treatment (apparently the insurance companies computers were down or something and they were having to hand write the approvals) I’m told it doesn’t usually take long to get approvals but you know with my luck I couldn’t start till 10:30am waiting that 2 hours and 45 mins was not fun.

Port accessed

Julia snapped this pic of me waiting to use the potty lol

Here is my timeline 10:35 am port accessed flushed and I was hooked up to my IV pole then I was able to go pick a seat which is nice to have a choice on where you want to sit. I was started on anti-nausea meds first then I had to wait for 30 mins after they were in to start the drugs so at 11:30am I got the Taxotere which took an hour then at 12:30 started the Cytoxan. I was done and out of there at 1:15pm just in enough time for mom and I to grab lunch and go sit in car line to pick up Tyson. Mom was with me the whole time and Julia’s work is right next door to Ocala Oncology so she walked over and hung out with us for an hour on her lunch break. After we picked up Tyson and Ava we went home I hugged on my babies for a bit then I went to bed and slept for a while. I’m happy to say I haven’t had any nausea at all (so far) and no problems eating (although I'm not super hungry). My coffee tastes bitter but other than that food tastes fine. I’m very tired and have had a headache on and off, dry mouth and a red flushed face (which I’m told is from the steroids and will go away in a couple days). On Friday October 17^th I went back to get my Pegfilgrastim shot… which I will get the day after each chemo treatment. It’s to help my body make more white blood cells. This shot has its own list of side effects to worry about like bone pain.

Julia, Me and Mom 10/16/2014

10/16/2014 hugging on my babies after 1st chemo

All and all so far I’m doing fine, I feel like I'm getting over the flu, achy and some body pain .. and I hope the next 3 treatments are as easy as the first. I’m told I will probably lose my hair by the 2^nd treatment… this side effect I’m really dreading, I’m going to cut it to pixie length on Monday so that should be interesting.

I wanted to share my article in our local Healthy Living magazine. I was interviewed the week prior to my mastectomy in August. I did the photo shoot 11 days after my double mastectomy, my right arm was still really bothering me at that time but the shoot was really quick. Here is a link the magazine article and below are some pictures from the shoot.

XOXO, Lynn

http://issuu.com/ocalastyle/docs/healthylivingmagazinesoct14/35?e=2431327/9531143