The Cycle 8 Chemotherapy Liveblog

Today's liveblog will start later than usual as I couldn't get an early appointment with an oncologist. Usually, it's blood draw at 8:00, oncologist at 9:something, and chemo starts before 10:00. Today it will be blood draw at 10:30, oncologist at 11:something, and, if I'm lucky (weird word in this context), chemo will start before noon. 

Which sadly means I won't be pulling the pump on Friday until late in the afternoon. And while it might've meant I could sleep in this morning, the anticipatory side effects are bad enough that I just got up at the usual time. 

All in all, bad luck on the late start. 

So now it's 8:45 and I have about two hours to kill before I have to be at Group Health. At least the late start opens up breakfast options beyond VPC or IHOP. 

As Arnold Schwarzenegger says in nearly every movie he makes, I'll be back...

10:33 am
I'm back. I've been to the infusion center, had the line inserted, blood drawn, and now am waiting for my appointment with the oncologist, scheduled for an hour from now. (Someone here should really work on eliminating the wait times between the phases of a chemo cycle. As a patient, I spend too much time waiting.) It was interesting seeing the infusion center at 10:15 versus 8:15. They get a lot busier as the day goes on. So much so that I fear I may not get my typical semi-private cubicle when it comes time to start chemo. 

10:51 am
It appears the chemotherapy weight loss program has started to kick in. I'm down 10 pounds over last time (214). Pretty sweet. Now if only there were a chemotherapy muscle-building program to go with it. Oh well. Skinny and mushy is still better than fat and mushy.

11:16 am
Apparently we're still waiting on the lab results before I'm cleared for chemo. Saw the oncologist without the lab results, and she's cleared me to proceed contingent on the lab work. So we wait for the lab work.

12:18 pm
Still waiting for the drugs to appear, though the labs are done. This time I won't be getting Avastin, since one of the tests showed I have too much protein in my urine. Not sure why that's a problem, but the medical providers think it is and I'll just defer to their judgement. They also told me to drink more water, but that may be more difficult as I'm not a fan of water and particularly not lukewarm water.

12:33 pm
Drugs are here, less Avastin. So we're off to the races.

12:56 pm
I'm tired and have a headache. 

2:24 pm
I'm still tired, and still have a headache. But the infusion is almost done, and then it'll be the pump hook-up and I'll be done. So unless something striking happens in the next fifteen or twenty minutes, this is probably it for the liveblog. 

But who knows? Maybe the line will come out and we'll have an orange alert or something. 

Though probably not...