A Successful Round 1 of R-CHOP

What a long day at the cancer center.  8:50am-5:15pm is really too long to be reclining even if you are on a beautiful beach in the tropics.

Today was a great Chemo Day.  They started me off with Benadryl and Zantac.  Next came a nice big dose of the wonder drug for nausea, Emend.  Then, the biggie was started, the Rituxan.  For my cancer attack visualization, this is the drug that wakes my army of zombies and prepares them to do battle with the ninjas.  I've had this argument with Shelby and Zach and maybe even a couple of their friends.  They say zombies cannot win against ninjas.  Oh yes they can, all that they need is the super power that Rituxan gives them.  Then watch out! 

True Blood requires a nice corner chair :-)

Cancer buddy/Cabana boy

No adverse reactions to the Rituxan.  The nurses only slowed it down once because I was having some back discomfort.  At that point, I had been in the chair for over 4 hours.  My hunky cancer buddy, Gary, found me a little pillow perfect for the small of my back and problem solved.  Full speed ahead.  He did an excellent job as cancer buddy and was even able to get a little work done.  An hour long conference call in the cancer center isn't nearly as bad as you'd think.  Worst part for him was the seating.  My chair was definitely better.

I was all finished with the Rituxan by about 3:30pm.  When the angels in scrubs push, the next two you get a nice little time for talking to someone other than your hubby, Facebook, text, etc.  Today, she pushed the red stuff first, Doxorubican (the H) and then the Oncovin (the O) and then I finished with the Cytoxan which seemed like a very slow drip but the nurses guaranteed me that the headache I had would only get much worse if they sped it up.  Finally, at home I took my Prednisone, the P.

So now my army of zombies are not only super powered, they have an arsenal of weapons at their disposal.  Guess what one thing zombies like to eat more than brains - Yep, it's nasty cancer cells, especially ones pretending to be ninjas.  They will be victorious and even if it means I end up spending a small part of my life walking around looking like one of them - who cares!  It sounds like a great excuse to visit the Zombie walk in Grand Rapids this year.

As for my reaction to Chemo - as I said before today has been a good day.  Headache seems to be my biggest side effect.  I have a little upset stomach this evening but I took an anti-nausea pill and am sipping tea.  It could be from the Chemo or it could be a side effect of a DVR that decided not to tape Project Runway even though it was scheduled.  Thank goodness, the Prednisone is keeping me awake.

Special thanks to all my chemo buddies today - Robin for the yummy food and the hands on prayer time; Jean and Patty for help with driving Zach; Laura for being the parent on call today; my family for helping when needed and all of you for the prayers, light and love sent my way.  It was felt.