I have acquired a shadow, whom I have decided to call Scooter. Not a particularly interesting shadow, but Scooter follows me EVERYWHERE. Scooter is my IV pump and is currently watching over me as I type this email with a big bag of saline and a big bag of orange tang…both moving very slowly.
After spending most of Sunday morning expending nervous energy by cleaning my hospital room (seriously, gloves and antibiotic wipes were used), I finally got started on the R part of the R-EPOCH chemotherapy. R, Rituxan, is a mono-clonal antibody that targets a certain protein called CD20 on B-cells. It’s development and use in the last 15 years has apparently improved results of the chemo treatments by over 30%, which is cool. What is not cool is that 20-30% of patients have an allergic reaction to it, which doesn’t stop them giving it, just makes the process more fun. So they hopped me full of Benadryl and Zyrtec and steroids and something else that made me totally wonky and we were off! Luckily, I didn’t react, but the whole day passed in a blurry haze.
At around 6, they started the next part, EOH, note aforementioned bag of orange tang. Because this stuff is actually chemo, they filled me up with all kinds of anti-nausea stuff before starting the drip, which takes a total of 96 hours to get into me (4 bags, each one goes for 24 hours, hence Scooter). One of the drugs that I got was Ativan, which was hilarious for Michael and my friend Laura to witness. I was…completely…stoned. Like, freshman year in college stoned. After staring at the tv, drooling, for two hours, I decided that enough was enough, so Michael and I walked a few laps of the floor (which was also apparently entertaining), and then I went to bed.
Up again at 4:30 to watch the sunrise while biking for 1:15, and I’ve felt fine all day! Hooray!
It’s Monday, so doctors have been in and out, more details gotten, timelines a little more firm, but nothing really new to report.
Thank you again for your thoughts and love and calls and texts and gifties and cards and visits and just generally being awesome amazing people who love me. I can’t express how buoyant it makes me feel.
Much love,
Lydia
