The day after the first chemo treatment.

So yesterday was the first day of chemotherapy.  Man that just sounds so strange, so surreal, even typing it out.  Went down with my wife and father, who wanted to come.  It went fine for the most part -- there was some confusion about my medications that freaked me out a bit, though.  The way the Mayo Clinic does this treatment and the way the RMCC does it are just slightly different -- mostly in how and when you are supposed to take the Dexamethasone.  I had taken it Friday morning, as directed by Dr. F and the Mayo Clinic, but apparently the usual way the RMCC does it is to take it the day before (only a partial dose) and then the rest with the Velcade shot.

Got it cleared up that afternoon, however, so now I just await the results and next Friday's session.


All things considered I'm feeling OK.  Had some mild nausea and some joint/bone pain, which was to be expected, a little vertigo when getting up too quickly, and I can definitely detect a higher level of fatigue than usual.  Considering how it could be, though, I guess I should be thankful.  While sitting there in the infusion room (where they do everyone's chemo), I was listening to the nurses talking about things like "96 hour infusions" which doesn't sound like too much fun.

Then again what I'm doing isn't fun either, even if it's a much more mild regimen.  I think my deal is more of a mental battle at this point ... it's hard to describe the feeling of just having done a chemotherapy session when I don't feel the slightest bit cancer-ridden.  I have a feeling I'd be approaching this differently, at least mentally, if I was as ill as some of the folks get with this stuff.

Today (Saturday) we took Ariana out to Cabelas to get out of the house and I got sunburned just driving there and back ... forgot about the chemotherapy class mentioning I need to always be wearing sunscreen outside now.  On the bright side I had a good friend I met on a diving trip hang out for several hours talking on the patio at home, though, so ended the day better than usual.  He and I, as he put it, just instantly "clicked" with the kind of kinship you find sometimes on things like dive trips, and it was nice to just kick back with a beer (well me with water) and shoot the shit for a few hours.