First Chemo

I had the power port put in yesterday, here is a gruesome picture of that.

PLEASE understand how much I must love everyone following this to post such a horrendous picture of myself, it is truly the best "I love you" I can give you all :)  Now this puppy hurts a bit right after they put it in, it made me walk like a partial hunchback for most of the afternoon.  The good news was that the drugs they gave me stayed in my system for a bit after and I didn't have any pains in my stomach for the WHOLE afternoon which means I was able to EAT FOOD.  Believe me, this was a banner day, I did a small and freakish little dance after lunch.

Now today was the first trial run of this little port and my first round of chemo.  My schedule is actually better than most I think.  I go in this first round and I get all three drugs.  It takes about 5 hours but I tried to be really on my best behavior and then decided that joking and laughing was a lot more fun.

Yes, my shirt has a cowboy on it that says "Chemosabe" - it got a few laughs so I was much pleased.  The Epirubicin, the one that makes my hair fall out in about 14 days (we will LOVE those pics) is also colored a bright red and, consequently, also makes my pee the same color.  Very Christmasy.  Then after the Cisplatin, they put in the pump with the 5-FU.  The 5-FU runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from the ugliest piece of medical equipment I have ever seen:

So I have this little bag I have to carry everywhere with me all the time.  It has to hang on a hook when I take a shower, I don't even know how sleeping with the thing will work as it is connected to a tube that runs into the port in my chest.

That is the first week, just one day and all three drugs.  The next week I just go in to have the pump refilled, same with the third week.  Then the fourth week I go in one day and they do all three again.  So really, I am only in there one day a week and only one in three days will be the long day.  So YAY!  Updates will be forthcoming about how good/bad I may feel, they pumped me full of steroids and anti-nausea medication that is supposed to last for about 3 days.  I love you all so much and I have a BIG shout out to Maggie for hanging with me for quite a while and keeping me smiling.  I love you girl.  And as always, my perfect husband who made me laugh a lot, went and got me lunch so I could eat before the nausea kicked in and looked after my every need/want.  I love you Pumpkin.