Do you remember the night before your first chemo session?

GregP_WN

I don't remember the night before my first one 32 years ago, but I remember vividly the day of, in fact the seconds that it took for the chemo cocktail to run from the bag down to my veins. I watched that red color come down and was scared to death about what would happen when it hit me. I remember it being cold and burning. The nurse came over and asked, is it cold, (yes) and do you feel in burning (yes). OK, let me turn it down. She said she would cut it back. In those days it turned wide open and dump it as fast as it will go in. (Reason #864 why my veins are toast).

So tonight I sit here in the hotel waiting for tomorrow. The Keytruda infusion will be much gentler than back in the caveman days, I will get some fluids and pre-meds, which were unheard of back then. Then the real juice. That's not a worry to me.

What has me all jacked up is the clinical trial of the ADU-100 injection, directly into the tumor in my neck. The tumor that hurts if I even touch it.

faithfully58

faithfully58

Dkatsmeow

I only had 2 Chemo treatments & had to stop. It was destroying my kidneys. but the chemo wasbn't too bad. But the potassium drip. That feels like having hot lava poured into your veins. The nurse countered it with a saline drip. I guess it diluted, but much easier to take.

Dkatsmeow

I only had 2 Chemo treatments & had to stop. It was destroying my kidneys. but the chemo wasbn't too bad. But the potassium drip. That feels like having hot lava poured into your veins. The nurse countered it with a saline drip. I guess it diluted, but much easier to take.

Carool

I remember my first chemo, though not the night before. I remember the nurse handing me a Zofran pill and my promptly dropping it on the floor, and that she said, “That pill costs $50” (she didn’t sound angry, just matter-of-fact, and I might not have remembered the session at all if she hadn’t marked it by saying that). My chemo took about an hour. Pretty easy, considering.

Greg, I wish you an easy day tomorrow, and I hope the nurses can help you with the pain of the subsequent injection. Thinking of you.

Bug

Can they give you something to help with pain from the injection?

LiveWithCancer

I don't remember the night before, but remember the day of my first chemo. I was scared and curious. My first chemo took hours and hours. As time went on, the drips got quicker, but they started very slow.

Like Carool and all of the rest of us, I'm also wishing you an easy time tomorrow. The Keytruda should be a no big deal infusion. Not sure about what the drug from your trial will be like - hopefully, deadly to the tumor.

GregP_WN

Today was not bad. The treatment itself was uneventful, the injection hurt like hell but I've been through things lots worse. As for dealing with the pain of the injection, he told me yes, I can give you a shot of lidocain to numb it, but that shot is going to hurt too. So what do you want one shot that's going to hurt a little, or one that's going to hurt a little and another that is going to hurt a little. I just went with the one that's gonna hurt a little. It wasn't unbearable. So far, so good, no side effects yet.

LiveWithCancer

Hopefully there will be no side effects. Except dead cancer.