The Realities of Chemo

This would be the insane amount of medications I get to take every day.

The lovely sunset driving home... Aren't the clouds awesome?

Hey it's Lauren!

Tuesday was Week 4 of chemotherapy. For those curious, this means I received cytoxan (once every three weeks) and rituximab (once a week for six weeks). The cytoxan requires pre and post-hydration in order to ensure the "toxins" don't totally destroy my body and I have to be watched for an hour after receiving rituximab to ensure that my blood pressures don't bottom out. I also get to take oral prednisone, a corticosteroid, for the next five days which means I will probably have a puffy face and swollen everything else, be incredibly hungry and irritable, and not be able to sleep at night. Yay.

The whole process went from 8:30 this morning to 6:30 at night. Uness you count driving in Chicago traffic. Then it goes from 6:00 to 7:45.

Now to take you through our day in pictures....
This would be the traffic we sat in for an hour and a half. While it was downpouring. So much fun. I have no idea where all these people really have to be at 6 or 6:30 in the morning. Mom and I entertain ourselves (and stay awake) with iPod music.

The lovely sign welcoming us to the hospital. This is the main entrance to the hospital.

And here is where I was for the rest of the day. Actually we got to sit on lovely plastic blue couches for an hour to wait for my blood to be drawn and then to wait for the blood counts to come back. If certain blood counts, like hemoglobin (the red blood cells) and white blood cells, are too low then the cytoxan would be put off for another week. The bed I'm on is probably one of the oldest in the hospital.

The bag with the yellow label on it is one of the chemo drugs. They are both clear, like regular fluids. Just a lot more toxic than fluids. And a lot less fun to have to get.

So I came home and took a shower after feeling nasty all day from the chemo. That ball in my hand is the hair that came out in that twenty minutes. When I brushed my hair another ball that big came out. Depressing. No fun. Wishing my hair would stay stuck to my scalp. Plus I find hair everywhere I go - on my shirt, on the chair, on the desk, on my pillow. And there's no way I can pick up every single strand. Then my scalp itches like crazy because of the dead hairs mixed in with the ones still on my scalp.

So right now the hair falling out is really just plain obnoxious. It'll be a lot more depressing once the bald spots start appearing. But so far you can't tell. Yet.

Anyway, that really is the only major side effect. Along with headaches. And today I've been incredibly tired and haven't felt great to my stomach. My doctor doesn't want me to eat any juice or too many carbohydrates this week because the prednisone can cause my blood sugars to sky rocket and we really don't want to have to deal with insulin shots. This should be an interesting week!