Today is the last doctor's appointment where they make sure that I'm good to go for chemo tomorrow, and I'm also supposed to get a "chemo teach" where they explain all about the wonder drugs and possible side effects.
First, the checkup. Have I mentioned before how much I love this doctor? She immediately notices and compliments me on my new haircut. She asks me if I've heard the pathology results from the last surgery. When I say only that the surgeon called me an overachiever, she laughs and admits that's pretty accurate. But she says she has the numbers if I want them, so why not?! This last surgery they pulled out a total of 3.5cm of cancer...add to the 1.1 from the first surgery, and the 2.5 from the second surgery...and that's some scary math. 6.6 CM of cancer! YIKES. That alone puts me into Stage 3, even without the weird lymph node lighting things up. It is agreed that I can stop being this overachiever ANY TIME.
Then we discuss what to expect tomorrow, what the PILES of meds in my bag are for and when, what to eat and what not to eat. Sushi, sadly, a no during this process. So are salads, salad bars, buffets (thank God we already went to Vegas). Only fully cooked eggs (bummer on the loss of eggs benedict). And only fruit/veggies that can be peeled or cooked. It was described like this: apple/orange/banana? Wash then peel. Grape? Peel it or cook it (so, no grapes). No salad. Other than this, nothing is really off the table. Although, we did forget to ask about my adored bleu cheese. Damn...will have to ask that tomorrow. No greasy foods was offered as an advisory to make your stomach feel better. This seems like good advise.
And fluids, fluids, and more fluids! And yet more fluids!
Temperatures over 100.5, even if you feel great, bring you into the clinic/hospital.
Then onto meeting with "chemo teach" gal. Who is a pharmacist/technician/nurse and adorable. Young, happy, HUGE sports fan (a fellow Husky Keith can commiserate with, who grew up in a Beaver family). We love her immediately and she gets our sense of humor! Will have to come up with clever nickname for her for this blog, because apparently I'll be seeing her a lot. "Husky Girl" seems weird.
She goes over each of the drugs that will be used tomorrow, how they work, what they do, and the side effects. Pretty basic info for anyone that has done this or knows someone who has gone through it, so I won't bore you will all the gory details. But one of the funnier parts was that one of the drugs makes your urine red, and one can cause blood in your urine. And you're supposed to know the difference because red urine is normal and bloody urine is bad, equating to an immediate trip to the hospital. Great!
I know that she's wonderful when she doesn't even think we're crazy when I say that Keith won't be staying with me tomorrow, and I probably won't have visitors. This is going to be time for me to relax and read UNINTERRUPTED. She's all for it, but promises to stop by and check in.
Off we go...
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