Rockin' It - ChemoDay#1 round #3

Many years ago while lots of family were at my parents house, my then brother-in-law (now an "ex") and I were listening to the LP/album soundtrack of American Graffiti and discussing, or maybe even rating, the songs. Turned out we had similar taste in music and appreciation of 'oldies' and especially those with a rockin good 'beat' to them. Some years later when I was visiting them at their home in Wyoming the subject again turned to music and he said I'd really like the music of Chris LeDoux. What?! I'd lived in Wyoming for two years in an area where I could only get one radio station that only played cowboy music, except for a 2-minute serial called "The Tooth Fairy" that was played each morning and I did enjoy it. The other junk...nope. And all I knew was this Chris LeDoux guy was played on cowboy music stations. No thanks.

Well...brother-in-law might have played me some Chris at that time (I don't remember) but I obviously dismissed it. So while Chris LeDoux rocked the music stages with his unique style of cowboy and country music and wrote more songs, I wrote him off. However a few more years

later I had my 'see the light moment' with the new country music and became a convert. Chris LeDoux songs popped up occasionally and guess what? I became a big fan of him too, and especially his rock-n-rollish songs. Time to eat a little crow. Yup, ex-brother-in-law was right. Chris died too early at age 56 from a rare form of liver cancer, but I feel lucky to have seen him perform two different times at the Lincoln County Fair in Afton. I think we paid $12 a ticket the first time, before his liver transplant, and $19 the second time, after the transplant, but each time we got a full-blown show that you'd pay $75-$100 to see anywhere else. Great musician, great music, and a guy easy on the eyes! If you don't know the song, this is a YouTube link to "Even Cowboys Love a Little Rock and Roll" Chris did with Charlie Daniels. (I prefer the Chris only version of this song but can't find it on the internet.) This post isn't about Chris LeDoux's cancer but related to his rockin' style of music.

Because, here it comes...during the appointment with my C-Dr today prior to chemo infusion's I got some information that made me feel like I was "rockin' it" -- that's a good thing. That was after vitals tech gal had taken the BP, weight, oxygen, respiration and C-Dr and I reviewed the 2nd round of chemo and side effects I'd experienced. All are manageable (with various levels of misery), apparently minor (compared to some other people), and blood work is still good. Counts of white blood cells and red blood cells are slowly dropping along with platelets, but not so drastically or critically, and C-Dr says NADIR visits (what I've called the 'mid-terms') aren't needed and the once-a-month blood work counts done on ChemoDay#1 will be sufficient. All this based on previous blood work but blood work taken today by infusion nurse just prior to treatment was okay. Of course, if any bad side-effect problems arise between infusions I can call anytime, but I feel like I've graduated from kindergarten to first grade.

We also talked about the schedule for the rest of the year and he reminded me that after today and tomorrow's treatments I would be at the half-way point of the monthly treatments. YeeHaw. So, in the way Wednesday is 'hump day' for the week I'm gonna think of this as 'hump month' in regard to my chemotherapy infusions. C-Dr also said that sometime after treatment #4 (October 21/22) we'll do a re-scan (PET scan) to see how the cancer cell activity is responding. Told him I've got mixed feelings, hoping results show improvement but the 'what if' lurks in back of my mind. In the calming and reassuring way he exudes, he said "You're doing great, you'll do just fine."

From there to the infusion room. Discovered today my phone does a so-so job of panorama shots (Monday is the long day and I got bored after about 4 hours in 'the chair') so here's today view:

Actually it is the same chair I sat in during my very first treatment. Decided I needed a chair closer to bathroom since a lot of fluids go in me on chemo-day#1 and well...you can figure it out. If you compare, this view is a little different because the snacks basket that was to the right of the fridge on my most recent visit had been moved, and then I see it to my immediate right.

Knowing it's a long day in the chair I bring various projects to keep me occupied and today I had my Nook, yarn to start a new crochet afghan, and of course phone to do a few games and internet surf. Also brought my lunch: the usual peanut butter sandwich (made today with peach butter my sister had made), 2 snack bags of grapes, string cheese and cashews for snack. Cashews and one bag of grapes were spared. I'd also picked up a few magazines from their rack for a little more variety.

Only one infusion nurse on duty as today was a slow day in the infusion room, and I'm not talking about 'slow' because of how long I spent in there. Rather, during the entire day there were only 5 patients, but never more than 3 at a time. I should know, I was there the longest. Two patients already in infusion room when I arrive, both 4 or 5 chairs away on my right. Then one of them left and another guy came in and sat in chair to my left but was there less than 30 minutes for whatever he needed. Then he left and shortly thereafter two other gals came in about 15 minutes apart and each were there less than an hour. By 12:30 pm I was the only patient. Had the place to myself for the next 4 hours. Weird.

Sad. One of the gals who came in was skinny, skinny, skinny with an obvious wig. Hoarse voice and having problems eating. She received IV fluids for dehydration and nurse was counseling her on how to improve nutrition and even brought her an Ensure from the fridge. After gal told guy in chair across from her that she had lung cancer he asked if she'd been a smoker. He named his cancer (I can't remember the name but I thought I heard him say it causes red blood cell trouble) and then she answered his question that yes, she was a smoker...and still smoked. The guy seemed stunned, as was I. Doesn't make sense and I don't understand how someone so miserable from the problems caused by her smoking continues to smoke. Proof of the power of nicotine addiction on some people. Like I said: sad.

After reading through magazines, tried internet but 4G service not working so played a few games but no patience today. So by 1:00pm I'd finished lunch and decided to get started on the afghan. It was an easy pattern once you get past the chain row and then figure out row2 and row3 patterns it moved along fairly well. Breaks from crochet due to bio breaks across the hall and conversation breaks with nurse and also Nancy the P.A. who stopped in. Picture above is chain row and start of row2, but by the time my infusions were completed I had about 6" of afghan completed.

All ChemoDay#1 drugs the same as previous two ChemoDay#1's and I was out of there a little after 4pm.

ChemoDay#2 tomorrow!


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