I'm going to share what my experience is like with treatment. I hope yours is just as good. I actually enjoy getting treatment and seeing all the nurses. It is like my own personal "Cheers" experience where they all know me. It brings me comfort to see the friendly faces of the nurses and other patients that I know getting their life juice. I make it a positive experience since I have to get treatment anyways. I can't imagine being negative about it. Treatment and the meds are what keeps my cancer at bay and allows me to continue to do stuff and live!
My treatment day is generally a Wednesday. There are times I see the doctor or nurse before treatment. In that case I get blood drawn prior to seeing them so my labs are available for them to see. If I don't see them then the techs in the treatment room will access my port and draw blood for labs. Nothing happens prior to seeing what my numbers are. I also have to provide a urine sample. Since I go in around 11ish for treatment I do the urine sample at home. It just makes it easier because you never know when the bladder is going to freeze up and not cooperate. I normally just sit there and read on my phone while waiting or I might eat lunch/breakfast.
After the labs come back and everything looks good, pretreatment meds are given. I get Tylenol, steroids, Benadryl and a shot to slow the secretions of the intestines. This all takes about an hour or so. It is always a question of is the Benadryl going to make me take a nap or is the steroid going to make me be wide awake? I never know ahead of time which will win.
After all of that then comes the liquid gold! My drugs begin. I get Vectibix, Irinotecan, Flouricil and Leucovorin over 48 hours. You may be wondering how that happens. After the initial drugs that only take and hour and a half or so I am then set up with a Infusystem Pump. I have the pump until some time on Friday. During treatment I can pretty much do whatever I want. I tend to play games on my iPad, read on the phone or nap. Sometimes I only nap because the drugs make me so incredibly tired. The nurses check on me and see if I have any needs and my husband will get me any food or drinks I want. The steroids tend to make me HUNGRY!!
After everything is done and I am hooked up to the pump (My Little Buddy is what I call him.) I get to go home until Friday. On Friday I return and get hydration (I tend to forget to drink) and deaccessed from the port. Boy does it feel good when the needle comes out! Then I go home until Sunday, when I return for a shot to boost my white blood cells.
That's all there is to my treatment. To this day it amazes me that I actually spent five years doing treatment and working as an Elementary teacher full time. I actually enjoy going and joking around with the nurses and others. The nurses are super compassionate and caring. I know most of them well because I've been doing this for so long. I hope your time in treatment is just as good and that you have excellent nursing care.
