Back to reality. (3rd chemo this week)

Had my third treatment yesterday (Friday)-first off the drug"Emend" that worked so well on my last treatment hasn't been as "on target" this week as it was the last time. More nausea this weekend than last but still not as bad as my first one.

Had to lay down just a couple hours after getting home this week. Drugs seem to hitting me faster each go 'round. I'm having no problem sleeping when it's a nap, but sleeping thru the night is getting to be a problem. "Ambein" the sleeping pill I prescribed isn't really doing it for me.

I've also noticed that I can taste two of the drugs as they go into the port. Mind you, the port is in my chest just below my collar bone but I get this funny taste in my mouth that didn't happen when I was hooked up to a convential IV on my arm. Kind of strange. Thought I could still smell the last drug they use to flush the port with well after I got home. That didn't help with the nausea either.

Loaded up on Canada Dry and a friend of mine recommended Pedialyte to help boost energy and fight fatigue. But now I know why my kids never wanted to drink it. Yeech!

This week we learned names of people we have seen over the last couple of weeks. Nurses and other patients. Lots of talking and getting to know poeple went on while we were there.

We officially met a guy named Joe. He has lung cancer-although he stopped smoking 13 years ago. Said he thought he caught a bug while on a trip to China and it turned out to be Lung cancer. We met a woman named Pat who has some kind of throat Cancer and was only getting 3 chemo treatments but is getting radiation. Her time in the infusion room lasts close to 8 hours per visit and she has radiation burns on her skin around her neck and shoulders.

The guy sitting to my right whose name we did not learn had some kind of lung and or throat cancer issues and the unsettling thing about him yesterday was the fact that he had a trachiotomy and basically he kept coughing or "blowing" his nose thru his trachiotomy hole. That was disturbing to listen to for 2 hours but a startling reminder how damaging this disease is and how smoking for one thing is just not worth it.

Another patient we met the nurses labeled "Chatty Cathy" lit up the room with her lively attitude and jokes about playing cards with each of us wagering our chemo treatments, loser has to take the winners next treatment.

Surrounded with all these people now joking and laughing with each other but each of us there for one simple reason, magnified to Dawn and I, that even on the days that I do feel good that this is still happening to me. It seems like my chemo weeks are bi-weekly reality checks.

Another interesting thing that we learned about this weekend was what my January surgery/hospital stay came to.

That bill finally arrived. The combined total for my two day stay, including surgery, anesthesia, chest x-ray, pathology, labs, electrocardiogram, IV, O.R., recovery room etc: $41,041.20

Yes, that was FORTY ONE THOUSAND, FORTY ONE DOLLARS AND TWENTY CENTS.
My cut is $1575.79...Dawn said she remembers the hospital bills between both kids which were both C-secitions with a four day hospital stay each collectively ran about $30,000.

It cost less to have two kids than it did for me to lose one kidney.

As we were leaving after my treatment another patient "chatty cathy" knew came in and his greeting to the room which sounded like a mantra we thought was worth remembering was "Everybody in good shape for the shape we're in?" everyone chuckled and we wished everyone a good day and planned on seeing some of them this morning when we had to come back in for our Neulasta shot.

So far today has been better than Friday with the nausea but the fatigue is something else altogether.

Three treatments down, Nine to go.

But who's counting?