We were up bright and early this morning and surprisingly both of us slept pretty well last night! We were both feeling a little apprehensive how the day would progress and overall it went well. We met with the pharmacist who once again armed us with a load of handouts about the drugs Brian will be taking and what side effects may occur and how to treat them. I now have a binder full of information and am learning very quickly all about non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (I wish we knew what type and Stage Brian was at) although maybe it a good thing we don’t know so that I don’t spend half my time on Google! You do have to be careful what you read.
We were then taken to the Chemotherapy Suite which is a huge room with beds and recliner chairs around the periphery of the room and the nursing station right in the middle. It is a nice bright room with huge windows to see outside and the nurses are tremendous. They tell you everything you need to know and are very attentive to the patients needs. They started the infusion and Brian was good up to about 1 to 1 1/2 hours when he started to feel a little tightness in the chest and just feeling uncomfortable. He got up to go the bathroom (as they are pumping Saline into you all the time as well, so going to the bathroom was frequent!) and when he came back, he did not look well at all, he started to shake and said that he felt extremely cold. The nurses immediately stopped his infusion, covered him with warming blankets and called the oncologist. They immediately gave him some Decadron and Benadryl and within minutes he had calmed down. At this point, Brian decided he might be better in a bed instead of the chair recliner, so we got him moved into a bed and he was definitely more comfortable. About 30-45 minutes later, they started the chemo infusion again and from that point on everything went smoothly, no more reactions and in fact he was rather funny as it was like he was drunk. He became very animated and talkative and was very upbeat about the whole process.
By 4:15, all drugs had been administered and they gave him one more bag of saline and then they disconnected the IV and we were out of there! So far, he is still feeling relatively good and once we got home, he started to do things like helping me with supper, getting the garbage ready for garbage day tomorrow and I had to get him to stop! The nurse had warned me that he will feel pretty good but may crash later tonight and had even told Brian not to overdo it and just rest. Anyway, he is now resting on the couch watching T.V. and we will wait to see how things progress over the next few days. They said it takes about 2-3 days for the majority of the drugs to leave his body and he may have some side effects but I’m hoping that the only side effects will be fatigue and nausea as both of those are very controllable. I will blog again tomorrow to let you know how he is doing.
Both Brian and I would like to thank all of you for your prayers, positive thoughts and energy today. Your e.mails and phone calls to show how much you all care is very much appreciated by both of us.
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