Yesterday was intense. I arrived at the treatment centre at 10am and was to be there until 4pm it was going to be a long day. In part I had made it longer by deciding to use the cooling cap. This is a device which I will wear on my head for all of my treatments to help prevent hair loss. There is no guarantee that it will mean I keep the hair on my head nor that I will keep some of it, but it has been proven to help with preventing some hair loss in a good percentage of patients and whilst I have never been a particularly vain person (I hope) if I can carry on looking like Mummy for my boys I am all for it! For more information look here https://paxmanscalpcooling.com/patients/
So first thing was to get settled in my chair. Thanks to my sister's lovely birthday present I had my new 'chemo bag' armed with a blanket, eye mask ginger biscuits, peppermint tea and colouring book! I felt ready to face anything! I also had my phone and naïvely thought maybe I'll get some boxsets watched in all this time or podcasts listened to. But it was not to be.
Firstly I had a simple IV solution to wash through and check everything was working with my port. Then came the preparation for my cold cap. The lovely team sprayed my hair with warm water at the roots all over. I was then fitted with what I can only describe as a freezer compress shaped like a brain over my head which was held in place by an attractive looking scrum cap! This was then hocked up to the machine to start the cooling process. In the meantime to help the rest of me with the immense cold a reusable blanket was produced which was filled with warm air to help me get nice and cosy.
I then had to acclimatise with the cold cap. It was not pleasant. It is very cold it is essentially making your hair follicles so cold that the chemo drugs think they are not worthy of bothering with and so don't interfere with them. After 10/15 minutes which seems a bit longer I realised that I was beginning to think of things other than the pain on my head and after another short while I was even holding conversations again and beginning to just get used to it. I had been prepped with some priton and paracetamol to help with the pain. Your body really is amazing! So the medical team then started me on my Palitaxel (known as Taxol), Carboplatin and Herceptin these together with the Pertuzumab are the four drugs which make up my treatment).
I then went into a nice cosy sleep in my cosy blanket, so my ideas of catching up on boxsets and podcasts when right out the window! I woke up around 2.30 once the main administration had nearly finished but I then had to wait for the cold cap to warm me back up and then flush my system through the IV. I was very woozy but felt generally OK. I had missed lunch but it was brought to me then and was very welcome. When it had all finished I was given instructions about my medicine to take at home and any side effects to watch out for, aftercare is very important and the team are wonderful about answering any questions and making sure I am comfortable about anything that is happening.
I was lucky not to experience any sickness during the treatment I believe that some people do so I am grateful not to be one of them. S picked me up with the boys and we came home to celebrate what was left of my birthday. They opened their chocolate advent calendars and I had a cup of tea and lots of water.
Thankfully last night other than feeling drained and having a little bit of dry mouth I have not as yet experienced any other side effects. I am though all too aware that this could change each week as my body adapts to this new routine. But for now I am grateful to simply just be tired and a little less the life and soul of the party. Which thankfully as there are not parties at the moment is not such a big deal!
I have some medication to take over the coming days which may affect my mood as well so this is by all means just the start of the journey and whilst I appear to be lucky, extremely lucky, so far I am taking each day as it comes and as every ready for whatever is thrown at me.
Take care xx
