Gettin' The "Juice"

I thought the first bag of “Juice” was chemo, but it wasn’t, it was an anti nausea medicine. They give this to patients to help prevent the feeling of wanting to vomit caused by the chemo. It didn’t take too long to finish that bag, just long enough to make my arm cold. The nurse came over and switched out my bags. She hooked me up to a rather large bag of “Juice” and started the drip, drip, drip.

I told the nurse my arm was getting cold and that it was hurting. She came over and checked the IV and the needle to make sure it all was ok. She told me that the chemo was cold and that it was making my arm hurt. She decided to slow down the drip until the “Juice” warmed up a bit. Now this was back in the day when they did not use pumps to regulate the speed of the drip as they do today. (FYI, I will be starting new treatments on 1-17-2012, I will speak about this in a future blog, but I have 14 years of chemo treatments to cover first).

Receiving all that liquid “Juice” makes one have to go. I carefully stood up so as not to rip the IV out of my hand. The IV pole sits on three wheels; I grabbed the pole and rolled it along as I walked to the restroom. After washing my hands, I went back to my chair and sat back down. Now the challenge was to pass the time. With one hand free and the other attached to an IV, I reached for my bag and pulled out my lunch. I grabbed an Apple and I snacked on it and watched the TV. I think something like Judge Judy was on. After I snacked, I pulled out a book and read for a bit. Then my eyes got droopy, I grabbed my jacket and used it to cover my upper body, I adjusted the recliner back and closed my eyes, I rested for a while.

It took about three hours to finish the big bag of “Juice”. The nurse came over and switched out the bags. Before she hooked up the slightly smaller second bag of “Juice”, she pulled out a syringe and gave me a Push. A push is what they call it when they inject a shot into the port on the IV tube. I asked what that was and she said it was Decadron, more steroids. I had already swallowed my Prednisone steroid tablets and now I was getting more in the form of a shot. The steroids help in shrinking the lymph nodes, but there are side affects.  The nurse hooked up my next bag and started the drip, drip, drip. I still had a couple of hours left, so I reached for my bag and ate the rest of my lunch. Got my book and read a little more and of course had to use the restroom a few more times.

Remember this was my first treatment. As my last bag of “Juice” was nearing the end I looked at the clock, it was 3P.M. I had been there six hours when the nurse cave over and sat down next to me. She gave me a list of instructions on how to cope with the coming side effects. Chemo kills all the fast growing cells in your body. The chemo I was receiving was designed to kill all my white blood cells. It’s like killing your immune system. The chemo does not discriminate in which cells it kills; it just kills them all. Stomach cells, hair cells, etc. all grow fast and that’s why people get sick and lose their hair. The nurse went over the list of instructions and then gave me several prescriptions; for nausea, anxiety, sleeping, pain. I found out later that there were a couple of prescriptions that she did not give me. Those were the ones I REALLY NEEDED. Live and learn.

Side Effects, next time…………….