First Chemo Session

   We hit up the oncologist this morning for my first round of chemo. They hooked up my port and Kyle kept calling me a cyborg. The nurse pointed out that this one is a newer model and has the three raised spots so it's easy to find. It's right under the incision, but she was able to go around it. We chatted with Dr. C first. He said the bone scan was fine. I got a prescription for a wig, just to have one if I want it later. Arienne came up to visit last week and we went hat shopping, so I have a nice selection right now.
   They took us to the chemo room and we waited around, reading Calvin & Hobbes comics on the awesome Nook Simple Touch ereader Kyle bought for me (already on Harry Potter book four!). They finally hooked me up to some anti-nausea medications and steroids. Then a flush, and then a second round of anti-nausea medications and another flush. A nurse brought out the A part of the A/C, Adriamycin, in 3 bright red syringes. She sat there and injected them slowly through my port. Another flush, and then she brought out the Cytoxan, which looked like normal saline.  I got up to use the bathroom in the middle of this and my pee had a nice bright pink tinge from the Adriamycin. The Cytoxan took over an hour to administer, but didn't give me a headache, otherwise they'd have to spread it out over a longer period of time. Kyle and I kept busy chatting with the nurses getting my prescriptions organized and with the talkative woman next to us, whose hair was starting to come back in. She's on the same schedule as me so I'll see her again. On the other side, an older woman's IV popped out and she started gushing blood everywhere. Lovely.
   Before that fiasco, the nurse was showing Kyle how to give me the Neupogen shots once a day for the next 10 days. It took many phone calls to make sure the pharmacy had them and all the information since they're a "high dollar drug," and I'm going to pick them up tomorrow. If the bone pain gets too bad, I'll stop them altogether and see how that goes. Otherwise, I'm hoping it'll be okay and I can switch to the single injection that releases the medicine over 10 days instead of running from Kyle trying to stab me every night (Hey, Mommy managed to give them just fine the last time, even after a couple of beers...).
   The nurse finally undid my machinery and trimmed some of the twine-like stitches popping out and irritating me. Dr. C stopped by to check on people, saw the nurse snipping away at my chest, and took off. Apparently blood and needles creep him out, and he's an oncologist...
   They let us leave after that (four hours later). I felt fine, except maybe a little nauseous from watching that poor woman bleed all over the floor, and heavy because they pumped so much crap in me. I came home and had to make some angry phone calls because the receptionist said I was out of visits for referrals, when I've only been 3 times and I had 6 allowed visits. I called the McGuire clinic, who told me the doctor has to call that in to Tricare. So I called the doctor's office who said they don't do that. She ended up putting it in and told me it'd probably be denied. So I called Tricare and told them I didn't really know what the heck I needed. As long as I still have visits (which I know I do), it should be fine, and since the doctor called it in, it should be approved. Tricare said doctors' offices just don't feel like doing it sometimes, but that it shouldn't be denied. It may be a pain in the ass to navigate Tricare, but I will admit once you get past that, they are awesome. I think I've paid $13 total for prescriptions just because I went to CVS instead of on base. So far, they've covered over $80,000 worth of treatment, and that was before chemo started. They did, however, deny the genetics counselor's request to test me for the P53 gene, but she's going to try to get Dr. C to order it instead.
   I called up the school's financial aid department after that to make sure my scholarships are going to go through. Some idiot part-time student-worker basically laughed as he read off all my scholarships that I would lose if I'm not a full-time student, even if I applied for a reduced courseload. He finally transferred me to someone more important, but she wasn't very nice either. She said what he said was true, UNLESS I was approved through Disability Services and she received notification. Well duh, that's what I've been doing... I called back Disability Services and they hadn't sent my paperwork out yet, which explains everything. So I will check again tomorrow to make sure it's all in order. And it better be, because I don't have a spare $4,000 sitting around.
   When I finally finished yelling at people over the phone, Kyle and I took a much needed nap on our comfy couch. I popped ANOTHER anti-nausea medication, Compazine, before our nap because I was definitely feeling bleh, and still am (even after THREE anti-nausea meds?). I did eat, and refilled my water bottle hoping to make the water taste better. Turns out it wasn't the chemo acting up, but just some really nasty hospital water. I'm still kind of nausea and drowsy, and my stomach hurts, but then I realized I recognized a familiar pain: menstrual cramps! Yea, it's about that time... That's all I need right now.

Bone Scan

   I had a bone scan today. They did the radioactive injection first and then we had to find something to do for two hours until the scan, so we stuffed ourselves at a NJ diner. The scan was pretty short using the same open-sided machine as my heart test, but the tech person strapped my arms down and put a rubberband around my feet so I wouldn't move. She said I didn't need any extra x-rays, which I'm guessing is a good thing because she let us leave after that and gave me a copy of the images (below).

   The home nurse also came by to do my discharge papers since the drain's out. She seemed surprised that I'm planning to get a mastectomy, and that I wanted smaller boobs instead. She said mine were a "good size for [my] height and weight." Uhh? No, I will definitely get a smaller, less problematic set that won't try to kill me.

   One of the web comics that I regularly read had an oddly appropriate, but very depressing comic today: http://xkcd.com/931. I'm sure Grandma's book of Russian obscenities has other ideas of what we'd all like to do to cancer...