The Ox in FOLFOX by Dr. Seuss? Chemo round 1

There's an OX in FOLFOX
that pops out of the box
just to remind you
Hey, I'm TOX -
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

Ding ... Ding ... Ding So, chemo round #1 goes to Oxaliplatin.

My fingers don’t like the keyboard so much ... bear with me. This is the first I noticed that.

Yesterday, Got up took my cal/mag dose (same as night before), got to the infusion room, choose the recliner nearest the emergency exit and told the assistant that I was fine without my armband as I preferred to remain anonymous. Ha!

Fast forward to the fun part. 2 minutes into the Oxi as we were discussing how Bret Farvre needed to shave as he was looking like a homeless wino with his 2 day bread growth, I noticed that my eyes didn’t want to focus then suddenly, my body caught on fire. It started at my toes and went rapidly up and then I started sweating and itching like crazy, throat sore. … “Stop the infusion”! Seems like suddenly 15 medical personnel appeared from nowhere (beam them up Scotty!). Slap on the cuff (blood pressure), make her sit down (seems I was heading for that emergency exit?) “Give her 10mg Benadryl”. I looked over to see I was scaring the poor guy sitting with his wife across the room. I had been told it was her first infusion too and that she was so nervous they had to give her a little something. She was knocked out. Shoot, wish I was knocked out too. Her hubby was standing up watching all the free entertainment in my corner. A couple of minutes after the Benadryl, I was feeling a lot better, could focus my vision and had stopped burning and sweating. I was told we’d wait another 15 minutes and start it again at a slower rate. I just wanted to either get it over with or let me the heck outta here. So, I sat impatiently wiggling my feet and acting like I was reading while the doctor and nurse kept asking me how I was feeling and rechecking my BP. I’m fine now … let’s do this … or not.

Try #2. Rewind and play again! (see above). Holy Sh**! “Well since she’s not having blood pressure problems with her symptoms (117/74 – normal I run about 90/60). Let’s give it another shot (20 more mgs of iv Benadryl) wait another 20 minutes and slow it down some more.” “blah blah blah” Doctor says “Because you have shown such a strong reaction to the Oxaliplatin, you will need to be very careful about not drinking anything with ice or that might be cold once you get home. You may feel some tingling and funny pains in your fingers and toes. Observe any of these symptoms and make sure to inform us of them before your next infusion.”

Try #3 Whew … it went ok. Done, get me outta here. 7:00am to 3:00 pm. Then, starving … haven’t done it in about 12 years … stopped at Wendy’s drive thru. Took a while to figure out what to eat. Got the cheap 99 cent burger (is it less bad for you if it costs less?) ate it on the way home. Feeling ok. Get home and went to drink some lemonade that I had made before and left out so that it wouldn’t be cold. Room temperature … drink … OUCH! Shards of glass down my throat. But, it’s room temperature! Find out can only drink things that are very very warm or hot. Cuts down on hydration because not that much tastes good at that temperature that is good for hydration! Was able to text and send out emails to let everyone know that I survived first round of chemo. Around about 7pm started to feel like I had a bad case of the flu … body aches, even my teeth hurt … didn’t even see the freight train that hit me. Temp 99.8 … don’t need to call the doctor over that. Whew.

This morning got up felt ok other than a headache (damn sleeping pills). Put on my fuzzy slippers to go make coffee … YIKES! Who put needles in the tips of my slippers? Funny joke! Today, still can’t drink room temperature, bit of a sore throat, needles in just the tips of my toes, fingers a little weird but not like the toes.

Can’t wait for disconnect! ☺

Update @ 9:15am starting to feel yucky again ... flu like, a little nauseous, tip of my tongue is tingling. Taking my pump (no name ... I don't want to name something that isn't sticking around and I consider a hassle) and laying down. Have a great day everyone! (I keep thinking it's Saturday ... duh!)