Jan 6 2026

Jan 6th 2026

First Chemotherapy session.

The session went well. Headed into a room to get blood drawn so they can see where all my levels are at. Liver, kidneys, Hydration, iron levels, CA 125 # (inflamation), sugar and salt levels. The whole shebang.  Everything looked good (except when she tried to stick me to take blood, she couldn't get the first vein to give up any blood, it blew the vein. Bruised instantly. She tried another spot on the same arm (right arm). She finally got that one to give her some blood, but again, it blew the vein (I was dehydrated).  

We went back in to talk to the Doctor and she went over everything, the blood work and what the plan was and what medicines they were going to give me as well as any questions I had. Which at the time, I didn't have any questions, other than, my stomach had been hurting me still. By now we thought the surgery area should have healed.  Oddly though, I found a large mass (AGAIN) just behind my belly button where the pain was coming from. My thoughts were that it was a hernia, or worst case scenario a new mass / tumor Quickly grew.  She checked it out and said that she thought it was scar tissue and it should go away on it's own.   Okay.. We will go with that.

We headed downstairs to start chemo. They take you into this wide open floor where there are little bays with curtains for privacy, each little bay has a nice comfy chair for the patient (it has a little table on each arm of the chair for various purposes, you can rest your arm on it, or you can play cards or eat a snack, etc.) and a pretty comfy looking chair for ONE "Friend" to sit with you. Each little bay also has a tv. So, no excuse for being bored. although the channels are regualted hospital channels. Some channels with movies, that is where I ended up for about 30 minutes.   Didn't get much time to be bored or lonely. Get to that in a minute.

Hubby gets bored pretty quick, so he ended up walking around the (accross the breezeway into the hospital itself, and picked us both up a cup of coffee.  NOT very good, but it did the job.)

While they were pumping me full of pre-meds (allergy meds, anti-nausia meds, steroids etc.) I had a visit from the "Lady that comes by to see if you need anything",  My bad I can't remember her name. I got a visit from these people that are doing some sort of Study, it's study about healthcare and offers cancer patience extra help either information or help set you up with applications to help pay for cancer. It's a 1 year study, they pay you for 4 surveys and a few phone calls I believe. I thought, why not. SO I signed up.    I had a lot of "people that work there" come by to visit and see how I was doing. It was a very pleasant experience.  Oh, they used my left arm to put the neede/tubes in (it also blew). So I ended up with a lot of bruising.

I also spent some time Crocheting, but didn't get much time to do that either.

We got there at 8:30 am, I was the first appointment:  Didn't sleep much the night before because I was worried I wouldn't wake up at 5am in time to drink some coffee before having to get ready. SO, yeah, I jinxed myself and ended up not getting much sleep.

The pre-meds were awesome, kept me away the whole time, it was about 6 hours or so and we got out just in time to run and get something to eat. However, Sitting in the chair for that long, except to get up and use the bathroom every now and again, kinda left my body a little stiff.  Before I fully got up out of my chair I got dizzy and light headed, and some pretty harsh leg pain so the nurse came and checked my blood presure and Sugar levels. Everything seem to be fine, it just appeared that the meds were messing with me a bit.