I had my first cycle on Wednesday, it's now Saturday afternoon and I just about feel up to writing this!
My husband drove me in to hospital for 12:30. The children were all sorted out with both sets of grandparents helping out - we are so blessed in this respect. We took all sorts of things with us to occupy us and keep me warm, not knowing quite what to expect. I didn't use much of it!
I didn't have to wait long before the nurse called me through with a basket full of packages in her arms - these were the chemo drugs. She put a canula in the back of my hand - this was the most painful part. I put on the cold cap. There is a freezer full of them, and my husband is allowed to get fresh ones whenever we need. They are supposed to last for 45 minutes but I found it quickly warmed up and I needed a cold one every 15 minutes!
I was plumbed into a saline drip and there was a place on the machine to add in the chemo syringes as required. First up was epirubicin, the red one. The nurse had to stay with me while this went through because if there was any leakage it would need stopping straight away - a nasty one! I had some steroids at some point, also through the canula, and the other two drugs. I didn't feel anything as each drug went in. When it came to flourourocine (the last one) they gave me some ice cubes to suck to prevent mouth sores. I didn't get any mouth sores.
Then I had a final saline flush and that was it. I felt fine!
Still felt fine when I got home. The side effects kicked in at about 5 with an overwhelming nausea and faint feeling, absolutely awful. But I took one of the anti-sickness drugs and thought it had worked. Had some dinner, then threw up, and continued throwing up every half an hour. I phoned the rapid response line twice and they gave me advice about when to take the next meds and said it would ease off soon. I managed to get an hour or so sleep but at 1:00 woke and was sick again, couldn't even keep down water. So phoned rapid response again and they told me to come in.
My husband took me in, leaving my parents at home with the sleeping children. Not a nice journey, but relieved to get into the hospital bed and be seen very quickly by a doctor who fixed me up to a drip with anti sickness meds and saline for rehydration.
I spent Thursday on that ward and then was moved to a different ward. They wanted to observe me until I was able to cope without the drip, just the oral anti sickness meds. I came home Friday about 5.
My husband has set up a spreadsheet to keep check of all the meds I need to take - 2 different anti-sickness, antibiotics, steroids and laxatives!
