First Treatment

Sarah and I got here at 8 this morning and checked in. The nurse said my heart beat was a little fast.... hm, I wonder why? So anyway, everything is going smoothly. I came in, got some blood drawn and spoke to the doctor. After a short wait they brought me into the treatment area and got things rolling.

Well it's about 11:00 a.m now and I am getting my first treatment.

When I first came in I asked the doctor about getting a port which I had read about. Go to the link.....doesn't look like fun to me. Hopefully I can stick with the regular IV. Ha....get it ? stick.....ha ha. She said I don't really need a port but we can see how the first treatment goes and I can get it if I want. I had read that it makes it much more convenient and less painful to draw blood and receive treatment with a port. However, I really don't feel like going under the knife again.

First they ran some saline into me for a little while and tested out a small dose of bleomycin in my arm to see how I would react to it. Apparently the bleomycin can cause respiratory problems. So far so good.

First in after that was the adriamycin. It is a red Kool Aid color and is slowly "pushed" into the IV. Next up was the vinblastine which was administered in the same fashion. Right now I am receiving the dicarbazine which takes about an hour and is diluted with saline to reduce discomfort. Often this drug can cause pain and discomfort in the arm. Again, so far so good. When this is done I will receive the final medication, the bleomycin. The order in the future however will be ABVD.

Overall everything has gone great. Everyone is very nice here and they are very thorough and professional. One nurse did bust on me about my Red Sox hat though. The treatment area is nice with my own t.v and access to snacks and drinks. Not to mention I have my own "nurse" - Sarah. Not bad huh? I am anxious to see how this medication is going to effect me though. I'm a little worried about that.

Some bad news today though that I almost forgot about. The doctor said that the tumors all added up, are close to being categorized as "Bulky". Bulky disease is any cancerous lymph node or extranodal tissue that measures greater than ten centimeters in any dimension. This means that after chemo I will have to go through a couple weeks of radiation also. Arrgghhh...................oh well, let's just do what we need to. Check back soon to find out how all this medicine makes me feel. Thanks for reading.