As you know, today was my 8th and, we think, last chemo treatment.
I have a bunch of pictures from today and sometime in the next while I will sort through them and put them up, so people can get a sense of what happens, because I know I had no clue what would happen when I went for my first chemo.
In the meantime, while I sort through the stuff in my camera and the stuff in my head, here are two pictures to give a bit of an idea of how it goes.
The picture above is, well, it’s my arm. But I am betting you already figured that out. Those are just a couple of bags of drugs and shit that got put in me today. I had the IV in me from 8:30 am till 2:30 in the afternoon so lots of stuff went in my arm today.
If you haven’t done your part to bankrupt the healthcare system lately, you may be unaware that the wee needle in my hand is actually a sort of plastic tip. My understanding, and I don’t know for sure because I am always looking the other way, is that the plastic covers the normal stainless steel tip, and the put the two of them in ya, and once they are in, they pull the stainless steel one out so that you only have a light, bendy pokey thing in you. These things make a difference, especially after 6 hours.
This picture is just to show you what happens when they pour all that dope in me.
Basically, I pass out pretty quick, because they start me off with Gravol and Benadryl and that combo would knock almost anyone on their ass.
This is me, listening to Metallica with the San Franciso Symphony Orchestra.
I have this morbid ritual of listening to that disc, partly because I really like it, and partly because it is a really good disc to listen to on headphones because of how intricate the orchestra stuff is, but a big piece of it is to be able to listen to the Metallica song, “Until It Sleeps” which James Hetfield wrote when one of his parents had cancer. (I don’t know which parent it was, I have heard conflicting stories.)
Everyone seems to have their weird chemo rituals and that is one of mine.
So, that’s 8 treatments.
I came home all stoked that I was finished. And then I sort of realized that I am not really finished. I still have the part where I feel like crap.
And I still have the blood work and the CT scan and the meeting with the doctor, all this month.
And I have to build up my immune system.
And I have to get my blood counts back in the normal range and get rid of the anemia.
And I have to grow my hair and eyebrows back.
And I have to start going to the gym again.
Going back to work would be a good thing too, sometime in the new year.
And do at least a few of the things I told myself I would do when I get better.
If I win that lottery, I will be able to do quite a few more… because I had a lot of time on my hands and came up with some grand and expensive things to do when I get better.
watch for me hang-gliding over you, any day now.