The Final Chemo

So here it is the final day of Chemo; it seems to have come round surprisingly quickly actually although I definately am ready for it to finish now.

For the first time I’m having psysiological symptoms where I’m starting to feel queasy and nauseus in preparation for the treatment which I haven’t experienced before . My body seems better able to remember what to expect this time and it isn’t looking forward to it.

After feeling so knackered last session I’m not shocked by this.
As usual I went down on my own, my friend Nicky was going to come along again but had to cancel at the last minute. Which was a shame as we had a lovely catch up last time but at the same time I was looking forward to just chilling and doing nothing during my treatment.

As before I had to be there an hour before as I have to take my Emend, in my pre-chemo visit yesterday I mentioned to the nurses and they said it would be sorted and ready for me as before.

It wasn’t.

I had to go down to the pharmacy and wait 30 minutes for it to be prepared for me. But no worry, it wasn’t like I was in any kind of hurry to get to the end of my LAST TREATMENT or anything! I was a bit annoyed, anyway I came back up to the ward and waited another 20 minutes or so before being called through to the treatment room to take my bloods.

Today I had Sally and she got me ready for taking my bloods, the first needle went in ok, but no blood came back, the second needle went in ok but wasn’t having any of it either, the third needle went in ok but no blood came back (even with lots of sweet talking to the vein and lots of wiggling of the needle in my arm).
So then Sally called Harry over to have a go – I was feeling really queasy by this point and she did suggest I could come back next Friday if I wanted to after my portacath was fitted, but I obviously declined – there was absolutely no way I wanted this treatment delayed any longer.

Harry started all over again – arm back in warm water to heat up the veins, then tried a hidden vein in the back of my hand. Hey Presto! We had blood coming back this time, finally they could take my bloods to check I was able to actually have my treatment today. The time was now 3.30pm, I had arrived at the hospital at 1.30pm!

Fortunately my bloods were fine and we had the go ahead for the treatment to begin.

Since my last treatment I had been quite lethargic (more so than I had before after treatment) so much so that over a week after my treatment I was still feeling pretty poo and in the last week of the cycle (week 3 –which is normally my feeling good week) I was quite exhausted.
I said to Harry that I would try and sleep during this treatment if that was ok and shut my eyes.

Then the nurses opened a box of chocolates! The lovely people that they are offered me some too and I’m far too polite to decline. I don’t think this helped me fall asleep though and found I could only sit with my eyes shut and listen to the nurses calling out names and regimens in a very rhythmical and monotone way. I must have dozed for a bit as the treatment itself did seem to go quite quickly. By this time I was the only patient left in the treatment room and it was lovely and peaceful.

So that was that, come 5 ‘o’clock I was done! I wanted to do a little dance and jump around - I was finished at last. The nurses were all at the end of their shift and although I’m sure could appreciate to some degree how I was feeling didn’t have the right level of enthusiasm for my liking.

So I left the hospital with a really bizarre combination of disappointment and happiness.