Chemo here we go...

Well the Chemo journey has officially started.

The doctor, who has an outstanding rep. as an Oncologist, apparently can't tell time. He had told us that it would take a couple of hours. We arrived at our appointment time of 8:15 and left, 'a couple hours later', at 2:15. This was our first time so hopefully this won't be the norm but it was one long day.
The first thing they had to do was access the port. The port is under the skin so they have to 'feel and guess'. Nurse #1 guessed twice and Nurse #2 guessed once before they found the sweet spot of the port and it was officially "accessed". Yes, it did hurt but I was a manly man!! :O)
They will take blood every time mainly to check red and white cell count. And they will take the blood through the port as part of the 'access' procedure.
Since it was our first time we got to go to a private room and watch a 'Chemotherapy and You' video. It was about 20 minutes of information that we had already heard but I'm sure they wanted to reinforce. And since we were first timers the whole procedure was done in the private room. Going forward I will be in the herd with the rest of the Chemo cattle. They have a lab room with about 20 reclining chairs and an amazing number of people who come and go with different levels of Chemo treatment.
They hooked me up to an I.V. of Leucovorin which is a chemically reduced derivative of folic acid. Leucovorin has been shown to increase the effectiveness of chemo drugs especially the drug 5FU. Also, on the I.V. stand was a bag of Oxaliplatin which is a Chemo drug. It took about two hours for both of these drugs to get on board. After the I.V. was done dripping they gave me a bolus of 5FU. 5FU is Fluorouracil and is the main Chemo drug for me. The shot was to give a quick high concentration of 5FU to get it on board. Then they hooked me up to the pump. The pump is about the size of the old Walkman and is like a portable I.V. It will pump 5FU into my body for 46 hours. 3/5 of a teaspoon every hour.
What I have had to deal with so far is sensitivity to cold on my tongue and some tingling in my finger tips. Also, when I take the first bite or drink of anything somehow my glands flair with pain then calm back down. It's really odd. After the first or second bite/drink things seem to go back to 'normal'. Though I'm not sure if I'll do normal again until after October.

James 5:14-16 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. ESV

God is still God!!

jim