At War With Cancer Part 2: Treatment Round One

Welcome back, to those of you who are following my story. And now, part 2. I call this Treatment Round One.

After the shock and absolute devastation of my diagnosis, my treatment began. I was told chemotherapy and radiation were going to be my best treatment option.

It started with me going to the hospital for a minor procedure, placement of my port. A port is a small device that gets sewn just under the skin in your chest. That is how the chemotherapy medications are given. Needless to say, I was terrified of getting my port, because it is a direct line to your heart. Now I must beware of the slightest infection.

My port was placed on a Friday and I was due to start treatment that Monday. Now that was a looooong weekend! Bright and early Monday morning I showed up to my cancer center. The first thing we had to do was infuse my Mytomicin chemo. I had to stay at the cancer center for 2 hours for that. However, that wasn’t all! I also had to go home with a pouch of chemo. This was flourorocil, or 5fu. I wore this chemo in a pouch nonstop for 96 hours! Try sleeping with a continuous clicking! That was new. Along with this, I had a 15 minute round of radiation every morning, Monday through Friday. The first two weeks weren’t so bad, but this soon became the most excruciating pain I had ever felt!! You lie on a table, nude from the waist down, while this huge machine circles your body and injects you with radiation.

I had to have one more infusion of Mytomicin along with another 96 hours of 5fu during the last week of my radiation. Thus, my battle truly began. This was my first battle in my war on cancer.

Stay tuned… tomorrow’s entry will be more on chemo and radiation treatment along with side and after effects. Thanks for staying with me!