Chemo Almost Canceled

Chemo #3 Day 1

Ma's chemo almost got canceled today. She's supposed to have a blood test done two days before her chemo. Because she just had one done last Wednesday, we thought that was good enough. It's not. The cancer center wants more recent numbers for her white blood cell and platelet counts. So Ma had her blood drawn yesterday afternoon, but it could take 24 hours to get the results back. The cancer center had actually called this morning to cancel her chemo today, but they called back half an hour later to say the test results came in this morning after all.

It was almost noon when we arrived at the cancer center. First thing they did was give Ma a warm blanket fresh out of the oven. Then they gave her lunch. But Ma doesn't like their lunch, and she ate before leaving the house. She had their soup though.

The nurse gave Ma the usual pre-meds -- Benadryl, Pepcid, Decadron and Zofran. It usually takes a while for the pharmacy to have the meds ready. As a result, the Taxotere wasn't started till 1:30pm. They started it off slowly and checked her vitals every 5 minutes to make sure she doesn't have any bad reactions. After 20 minutes, they bumped up the drip to the normal rate. It took 1.5 hours to finish the Taxotere. The Cytoxan was started around 3:10pm and also took 1.5 hours. We were out of there by 5pm.

I tried an experiment today and had Ma chew on ice while getting her chemo. Some say it might keep her from getting mouth sores. We'll see.

Ma's red blood cell count is too low, so Pa has started her on iron pills. Those pills cause constipation. We're hoping it'll help counteract Ma's diarrhea.

Here's Ma getting her Taxotere.













This is the infusion room at the cancer center after almost all the patients had left. There are 6 recliners. You can see Ma's blanket in the lower left. There's another recliner behind the curtain at the end. As you can see, it's a bit cramped. Thank goodness there usually aren't many guests accompanying the patients. Today I seemed to be the only one, and I was seated beside Ma.