Captain's Log, Day 1

Today I'm at Dana Farber for my first treatment in the new protocol.  In some ways, this reminds me a lot of when I first started chemotherapy for cancer, but in other ways it is so different.

Instead of the 10 minute drive to Umass Memorial in Worcester (maybe 20 minutes if the Belmont St. exit is really backed up), it took us nearly 90 minutes to drive in, starting at 6:30 AM.  In fact, I was almost late.  I hate being late.  When I arrived, they took my vital signs and brought me right to an infusion room with a good (but foggy) view, instead of the shuttling around from lab to exam room to infusion room (where we would try to squat in a room with a good view between blood draw and exam room).  They're pretty efficient here with the sticks, too.  Instead of doing a blood draw then another stick for the infusion, they just put in an IV to do it all from the same stick.  How smart.

I have lots of meds.  I'm on Cisplatin and MK1775 (the active ingredients, so to speak), which are both chemotherapy drugs.  There are also a bunch of others.  I have an IV anti-nausea drug that is supposed to last me 3 days (which is hopefully the same duration as the nausea).  I also have a lot of saline, since the Cisplatin can be harmful to my kidneys.  But, to make sure that the water makes its way through, I've also had some other drug (Maritol, I think?) to make sure that I go to the bathroom a lot.  Oh, then there was the steroid I had to take to boost the anti-nausea drug.  It tasted gross.  I think that just about covers it.  I'm supposed to write all this stuff down in my drug diary, so I will have the exact names at some point, but you get the idea.

I'm almost done with all the meds, but since this is a Phase 1 trial, there will be lots of blood draws to analyze how my body is metabolizing the drug.  I think my last blood draw is at 7:10 PM, so it's kind of a long day, but I've got lots of knitting to do anyway.  So far I haven't gotten too much done.  I'm in a bit of a fog because of the anti-nausea drugs (or maybe the chemo), so I apologize if this is more like a drunken sailor's journal instead of a captains log.

Okay, I think this is about enough for now, but I will blog again soon.  In summary, I'm doing well but I'm a bit out of it.  I need to get more knitting done, stat ;-)

Thanks everyone for your e-mails, texts, well wishes, etc.  It means a lot!