Five Days A Week

As the sun rose Tuesday morning, I rolled over in bed; it was time to go take another round of “Fludara Juice”. I still had a faint headache, it wasn’t that bad, but my hand was still throbbing.  I got up and went though my morning routine, then I drove to my doctors office. It was a little before 9am when I arrived, I went inside, paid my co-pay, and went back to the infusion room. I was becoming an expert at this treatment routine. I found my chair, arranged my personal belongings, sat down and waited for the nurse.

The head nurse came over and I showed her the giant purple bruise on the top of my hand. I told her I did not want the new nurse to stick me today. She said she would get me started herself, I was relieved, I didn’t need another bulging bruise. The head nurse rolled over her cart. This time she was able to insert the needle in my other hand on the first try. She flushed out the IV and hooked me up to my bags. I watched the Juice drip, drip, drip. Like Monday, the treatment did not take too long. I was finished in a couple of hours.

I packed up my things, told the nurses I would see them tomorrow (Wednesday) and I left. I drove to the office as I had work to do. So far the side effects had not been too bad (I still had three more treatments to go for the week), but there was one little side effect that was bothering me. I was developing a strong headache. I tried taking Tylenol on Monday, so today I decided to try Advil. Neither one of them worked. I continued to do my work at the office as the headache only worsened. Finally, I could not take it any more so I left and drove home. When I got home, I called the doctors office. I spoke to the head nurse about my headache. Her advice to me was to drink a can of Coke and take two Excedrin. I drove to the store, bought the Coke and Excedrin, and drove home. I followed her directions and then lay down. After about an hour I still had the headache. It wasn’t like it was any better, in fact, it was worse. I was also starting to develop the dreaded…. constipation. The chemo was going to make my life painful for several days.

In an effort to help my body, I had been juicing every day for the past six months. I had my favorite recipe. I would juice, carrots, apples, celery, spinach, and the stalk of broccoli (sometime I would throw in cucumbers or beets). I would make it fresh and then freeze a bag for later or for days when I did not have the energy to make it. If you want to get your vitamins and nutrition then you need to juice. I also had done a lot of research and was taking a long list of supplements. The juicing and supplements helped me to survive.

Well it was time to go to bed; I had another treatment on Wednesday.