The cubby-station felt like a luxury hotel -- light, aery, wall of windows. The lab technician wrapped a warm towel(!) over my hand, and then used some 007 spy looking stick to scan for veins, which glowed bright lime green. Surprisingly, the IV goes in the middle of the hand, and not in the regular vein.
After all the blood was sucked off, we met with my oncologist doctor and went over when/what/how. Long list of side effects and the schedule for the next several months.
We asked about medicinal weed candy to ease chemo aftereffects but were told to wait until a few days after chemo infusion...so no fun with weed for a while.
By 9:30 were already at the infusion center -- again, bright and cozy with a huge window; in the corner, a nice leather lazy-boy type chair that folds out as a bed with built-in heat, large TV screen and a first, lady with a snack cart stopped by, then acupuncturist.
The nurse in a bright green garb was running around like a crazy chicken without a head because Dana Farber changed the infusion protocol and she had only seen how to do it via a printout. She was sweet and kind and talkative, and honestly, I got more tired from her talking, running around and asking different nurses how to do the infusion order, than the actual procedure. I guess this is a good thing :).
I got several pre-chemo infusions -- I remembered the one that stung for 15 minutes was Benadryl. Then the Taxol started... First chemo is usually done with lot of pre-drugs for allergies, nausea, etc. and at about two to three times the speed of infusion.
Besides fatigue, I felt perfectly ok, so we didn't need to take breaks in between different drugs.
At 2:20 we were already in the parking lot, and home at 3 pm
First chemo ✅
