Chemotherapy, Cycle 1, Day 1 Summary

So here's a quick rundown on Day 1 of my first cycle of chemo.

All things considered, it was actually pretty easy. The only real side effects so far are a bit of a headache and the weird thing where my throat freaks out if I drink anything really cold. So, no more iced drinks for me for awhile.

The pump for the forty-six hour 5-FU infusion has been running since 2:00 pm, and it's proven to be okay to manage. It runs solely on batteries, so I don't have to worry about plugging it in, and the pump and bag of drugs all fit in the fanny pack that came with it. There's only one tube running up to the chest port, so it's all reasonably convenient. The only real downside is that it's heavy, so having it hang off your waist the whole time gets old. I find I'm taking it off and setting in on a table or window sill if I'm going to be in one place for awhile. 

So basically, Cycle 1, Day 1 of chemo has been pretty much a cake walk. Of course, this round didn't include Avastin -- Avastin slows healing so they need me to be further past the port installation before starting me on that -- and I'm told Avastin has a pretty big wallop. Also, chemo is a cumulative treatment, so things are supposed to get worse as you go along. One of my cancer informants told me that her first cycle didn't hit her until Day 3, so I'm not out of the woods yet.

But still, I'll take the easy day today and we'll just wait and see what happens tomorrow.