First day of Chemo

Today Ellen and I reported to the hospital for my first day of chemo. I'll be getting 6 to 8 treatments - one every 3 weeks or so based upon a number of factors. All I can say is, I hope they all go like this one. We got there at 7AM and waited while the first batch of drugs was mixed. The pharmacists don't prepare the drugs until you show up. By 8:30 I was seated in the infusion room and getting my pre-meds, which are given to reduce nausea and prevent allergic reactions. While this was going on our nurse gave us a lot of information and advice - she was most helpful. By 10AM I was getting rituxin. It took about 4 hours to infuse 600 CC's, they start it very slowly and then gradually increase the flow rate if you don't react. This drug is a mono-clonal antibody which hooks up with the cancer cells and kills them. Unfortunately it does the same for mature white blood cells. After this I received 3 more infusions of chemo drugs and was finished by 3:oo. Tomorrow I get a shot of Neulasta to pep up white cell production. So chemo was 6 hours of sitting in a chair while the I.V. dripped, reading, doing crosswords and eating. I just hope the other sessions go as smoothly!
Ellen was there the whole time, handing out food and drinks - she is definitely the support arm of this operation. At the end of the day I think she was more tired than me. Now that we have a schedule and things are happening she can relax a little.
Now we're hoping that most of the many side effects will not materialize, but that is a wait and see. I seem to have a drug for all the situations.
I also got out for two days of fishing with Dan this week, but as trout streams are the opposite of distilled water, looks like fishing will be off limits until I have a good white cell count.