We arrived at the clinic yesterday at 8am, and I was welcomed with another of Edna Wilholtz's Readi-Cat 2 pina-coladas, which as I grow more accustomed to them taste a bit like a pina-colada mixed with Elmer's Glue.
The CT scans were clear, so that was a relief.
The actual chemo session lasted about four-and-a-half hours, since Cispaltin needs a lot of saline solution to dilute the evilness. They begin with some anti-nausea drugs before the Cisplatin and Gemzar, and quite honestly, except for the sheer boredom of sitting there, it was no worse than a morning spent with English-as-a-second-language DMV workers.Perhaps even better, since chemo nurses are very nice.
Only one part of the treatment was a bit unpleasant. Towards the end of the IV drip, they infused the solution with something called Lasix, which is a powerful diuretic. I was warned that I would probably have to urinate about every ten minutes. Well, since people who have had a radical Cystectomy do not necessarily feel the same urgency that we did before, this can be a problem, especially if there is only one bathroom for the whole chemo section. Plus, the nurse wasn't exaggerating--I've never had to pee so much in my life. She finally brought me a portable urinal, which not only worked fine, but had measurement printed right on it, so I didn't have to use one of my wife's cooking measuring cups to satisfy my curiosity about my flow and volume. The first wave was twelve ounces in a very very short time--not bad.
I was sent home with two prescriptions, compazine for anti-nausea and ativan (which helps with sleep).
The entire day wasn't bad at all. Much better than what I expected. I had some pizza and went to bed.
In the interest of honestly, however, this morning was less than perfect. I had one wave of nausea and threw up a couple of times, but it passed in about ten minutes. After than I felt a bit tired, but fine. I worked all day without any incidents.
I'm certainly not predicting that this is as bad as it's going to get, but for me, right now, 2:45pm, Friday, Pacific Standard Time 2006, this certainly seem doable.
My next session is October 19, and is Gemzar only--which goes very quickly; about half an hour.
