Treatment - Day 1

Today was the first day of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Chemo went a lot easier than I expected. The visit started with a bag of saline and a visit with Dr. Klancar. She was quite helpful in answering questions and making an appointment with radiology to check on my PEG-tube. It took a good 90 minutes to go through an entire bag of Cisplatin. The treatment room was a little cool for me and the room temperature fluid going into my vien didn't help. So I had a blanket on my legs, the Prayer Shawl (from Pax Christi) on my shoulders and two rewarmable bags on my arm.

The chemo treatment was rushed so I could make my radiation treatment appointment. The radiation nurses there took charge and secured me to the table quickly. The procedure went smoothly and I didn't have any issues. The .5 mg of Ativan might have helped but I didn't really notice much affect. I'm not very claustrophobic so that wasn't bad. Holding still for 30 minutes wasn't too bad except for my elbows started to hurt due to resting on unpadded metal. I had some involuntary twitches that seemed to affect my entire body. Breathing through my mouth is difficult due to the mask and dentral trays. Hopefully my nose and sinuses stay clear.

After radiation I went to Radiology to get the PEG-tube checked on. It has been very painful the last couple of days. I cannot stand up straight or walk much due to not being able to take a normal breath without pain. They ran an imaging machine and then an ultra sound and said that the placement of the tube looked good and that it was likely that I had a significant internal bruise. Their recommendation was to take more pain meds. Bleh.

After the radiation I was feeling a bit "up". Like someone had slipped a shot of espresso into my chemotherapy bag. That feeling has gone away now. My throat hurts a bit and I'm kind of tired; more than I would normally be at 9 pm.

Radiation treatments will take place at 12:30 pm the rest of this week. My mom has rides lined up for me this week.