First Chemotherapy session

This is the day. The first treatment. At least now I should start to get cured.

Managed to get to take C&M to school today. That's always good.

The straight to hospital, got there about 9.00. A bit quiet to start with, but soon filled up. Get weighed first - 76.2kg. Went in to see Dr Davis quite quickly. Talked more about the treatment and all the drugs I will have to take to counter the effects. Also talked about the clinical trial, seems that if I sign up I have to do it on NHS, but the private cover doesn't give me anything extra anyway. I signed up anyway, but I can always opt out later. I will have to discuss with insurance why they won't pay up.

The I go in to the area for the treatment at about 10.00. Sit in a nice soft chair. The nurse - Elaine - comes over and sets me up with a drip. There are 4 drugs to go in ABVD, you can check on the website to see what they are. Elaine stays there to give the first 3 injected into the drip. She is very chatty and tells me a lot about what they are doing. It seems that they don't really hang around in my body, they go round once, do the stuff and then get flushed out. One of which is a bit red and comes out that colour when I go to the loo - so be ready for it. The last one just goes in as a drip, this one is sensitive to light so it is kept all covered up. It's going to do the same for my skin, so I have to be careful in the sunshine - I could easily burn up. Not good news on a beautiful sunny day. Elaine also tells me that the lump will start to get attacked very quickly and I should expect it to get smaller before my next session. The stuff going into my arm feels a bit cold, because it's at room temperature, not too pleasant, but it's okay. They give me a heat pad to help, but that only works for a while. I also comment that I can feel my lump tingling, Elaine says that is possible, it could be the drugs attacking it. It takes about an hour to all get through including flushing with some saline. First hair loss when she takes the needle off my hand pulling off the plasters - now that's painful.

At the end I feel a bit giddy getting up, but that's not too surprising after all the fluid. Then I have to get all the drugs for after. Sam spots that they didn't have the anti-gout stuff. Some confusion, apparently Dr Davies gave it to me, but we get it sorted. Afterwards, I see the radiologist - Dr Bates. We talk a bit more about the radio treatment and also the trial. If I do the trial I might not have the radio at all, but we will book it in anyway. Found out that the trial means one less chemo cycle if I get a negative PET scan, even if I get selected for radio. But still it doesn't limit my choices at the moment.

Back home by about 1300. Have lunch. Then, how sad, I do catch up on work (from home). A bit of crucial stuff to sort out so I got in contact with some people to help get it moving. But I still manage to go to pick the boys up from school. Great that they're excited to see me.

Need to wait and see when I start to get some impact from the treatment tomrrow.

To Gerard: my teeth are still in place as well!

Best wishes to all. Baldilocks.