Chemo session #1 almost done

Today we move on. After waiting several days for Kay's liver enzymes to come down to a level where she could qualify to participate in a clinical trial, we decided we just had to get on with treatment. This is the first time I have really seen the chemotherapy process first hand, and they are smooth. Having a modern and beautiful cancer center here in Puyallup is really sweet.

We got her at 11 AM, and Kay was quickly brought to the infusion center, where they have Lazy-boy type recliners for the patients. "Chairs" as they call them. They put an infusion needle into the port-a-cath Kay had placed earlier, not a painful thing at all, and then give her lots of drugs. IV decadron (a corticosteroid) and IV benadryl to prevent allergic reactions, a long lasting IV antiemetic, and IV ativan (for nausea but also makes her very drowsy. She then essentially slept through 4 hours of IV infusions, no side effects at all except the drowsiness.

Now we go home. The big thing tonight is we clamp the external bile drainage and see if Kay tolerates that. If so she may be able to get the external drain removed tomorrow. That would make her unattached for the first time in a while, and able to shower. I plan to get mine first before she uses all the hot water.

I'll make this quick. We are going home.

Ed