1 down 52 weeks left to go

Round 1 of 6 treatments of Carboplatin and Taxotere complete. Round 1 of 52 treatments of Herceptin complete! It was a long day but it was also an easy day. I had packed up my "chemo bag" yesterday - blanket, all medications for nausea and asthma, lotion, lots of hard candy, lip balm, sanitizing wipes, book, garden planning stuff, and things to make Shauna's training plan. I was over prepared for the day (how unusual) and was convinced I would be made fun of for bringing so much. My oncologist said that young people read everything and are always more prepared than others - this is how I felt today. The day started when I realized I didn't put my lidocane cream on my port to numb it up so I tried to open the horribly designed tube in the car and I pushed too hard on the bottom and the top shot off and flew across the car. Joe got it all over his leg. It got all over the shifting column. A few minutes later, Joe said, "Well, it works because my shin is numb." The problem was my port was not. We got to the infusion room, found my seat even though I refused to sit at this moment, told our story, and I was given better instructions on how to put it on so I will go numb and then given a big ice pack to numb the port. The insertion of the needle into the port was much better this time! I am so happy to have skilled nurses available to me. In order to prevent skin peeling on my hands, we iced my hands while getting the taxotere for an hour. Joe went and got me lunch and a newspaper during carboplatin. Other than the horrible metallic taste associated with the saline rinse, I started to get a slightly nasty taste at the end of the carboplatin treatment and during herceptin. I had tons of candy with me (options just in case I wanted something specific). I ended up only wanting the organic lemon honey or apple hard candy which aren't as sweet as the others. I drank about 64 oz of water while I was there - I drink water when I get bored and I had access to it over the 5 hrs I was there. I also am convinced that if I drink enough water, my kidneys will function really well through this process and I will rinse the bad drugs out of my system at an appropriate rate so that they aren't just sitting there in my system. I feel extremely hydrated now! I only sat for short periods of time though through the day. I hate to sit. I even got to do laps around the infusion suite - I need a pedometer to figure out how long a loop is so I can walk a mile while I'm there. I was given strict rules that I couldn't leave the suite though! The nurses thought it was funny that I would just stand in my little area and do things - I just couldn't sit there for 5 hrs. Things went really well though. My only side effect right now if a little joint pain, a little tired, and I am a little more pale than normal. I have decided that I will be perfectly fine during all of this with small amts of tolerable side effects to no side effects from chemotherapy. I refuse to have those side effects. I ended my journey through the first chemo session asking if I could bring my bike in for a treatment on the bike and they humored me saying that would be fun! They don't know me well enough to even give me false hope!!! Jay, I may ask to borrow the quieter trainer sometime soon!