33% of the way through it!!!!

YAY!!!!

Today went off without a hitch.  Full R-CHOP all in one day.  An 8 hour day, but it went smoothly, so I'll take it.

First you have to picture my entrance to the hospital.

I was told that in order to reduce the pain of the finger prick (I really do hate those) you should have really warm hands.  Great phlebotomist recommended a hand warmer.  I took it one step further (shocker!) and had a hand warmer and a big ski mitten of Michael's.  So that's my left hand.

Meanwhile, they had given me lidocaine cream to put over the port so that the needle going in would be less painful.  I remembered it last minute, and took the cream in the car with us.  I rubbed the cream in, and then remembered you're supposed to cover it with a bandage, plastic wrap, or something.  I had nothing like that.  But I did have an Applebee's to go cutlery set, wrapped in plastic.  Aha!  Tore it open, turned it inside out, and pressed it down on the cream and buttoned my shirt over it.

The phlebotomist was really impressed with the warmth of my finger (my hand was sweating) and said I'd be her best finger all day.  It really really made a difference.  PSA - use a hand warmer if you're going to the Doctor and know you'll have a finger prick.  A big mitten over that is preferable.  HAHA   The blood flowed like crazy, and no pain at all.

As for the lidocaine and cutlery packaging?  Didn't help at all.  It did make for some laughs with the nurse.  But not worth it.  It's like any other needle.  It hurts a bit.  But then it's over.  I noticed no difference with the lidocaine. Fail.

The nurse suggested I name the port to make it seem more friendly.  She said "Frank" several times, so that became my port's name.  Since I've named my gum grafts (George, Herbert and Martha), it seemed fitting.  So during the day she was talking about Frank.  At one point she disconnected the IV line and just the 6" line from the port was hanging out.  So I started pretending to whistle into it, talk into it, listen to Frank talking through it.  She was entertained.  Nancy is very patient with my craziness.  She's lived with it my whole life, so it stands to reason....

My meeting with the Dr. provided some interesting information.  He told us that my bone marrow had quite a bit of lymphoma in it.  So my first treatment saw a near disappearance of my neutrophils.  Neutrophils are white blood cells.  They comprise the majority of your white cells, and are leaders in your immune system.  The first treatment went after the bone marrow, as it was supposed to, and the result was the killing of my neutrophils, which was expected.  Puts me at risk for infection, for sure.  Now my neutrophils should start to recover.  But obviously my immune system could be more and more compromised as we go forward (why am I using the editorial "we" all the time?  I feel like everyone is doing it with me, I guess  LOL).  If I develop a fever of 100.5 or higher, they'll go to Neulasta (you've seen commercials for it, I bet) and antibiotics.  With any luck I'll avoid that by taking extra care to avoid exposure. 

Now I'm really tired but still oddly wired (thanks, Prednisone!) Michael and I are driving to Toronto tomorrow to celebrate Tim's 25 birthday this weekend.  We'll visit Hockey Hall of Fame and the guys are going to a Habs/Leafs game. Danielle and I will find something to do - like eat our way around Toronto.   Michael and I are also stopping at Niagara Falls tomorrow!!  Looking forward to it, and hoping my energy stays with me.

THIRTY THREE PERCENT!!!  I'm excited about that. Can you tell?