FathersStory's Blog

               Within an hour, my son and I were at Dr. Grad’s office to begin chemo.  Dr. Grad checked my son over briefly, and explained what was going to happen.  This first day would take four to five hours of my son getting IV’s.  The doctor explained that my son would be getting the three types of medicine mentioned earlier (BEP, bleomycin, etopicide and cisplatin), along with a lot of hydration and some anti-nausea medication.  He again used the phrase, “You’ll be peeing like a race horse.”

            We then went to the other side of the office where the chemo would be administered.  We entered a long room with about 15 white reclining chairs lined up in a row, with IV stands by all of them.  Somewhat of a sterile looking room, with a room in the middle for the nurses to get their medicines for the patients.

             The nurse who took care of us was named Joan, and she was so nice to our son.  She said he could sit anywhere he wanted (only a couple of the chairs were taken at the time).  She suggested one end of the room where a TV hung overhead.  My son also had control of the remote, so he could watch whatever he wanted.

 

            She stuck a needle in him to receive the IV fluids.  That needle wouldn’t come out until his treatment ended on Friday, four days from now. About half of the IV fluids administered were to keep him hydrated.  One of the cautions we were told was that he needed to drink a lot of fluids to make sure his kidneys continued to function during chemo.

 

            One of the first fluids given was a liquid form of Benadryl.  This was to prevent any reaction from the bleomycin.  This was a test dose, to see if there was any reaction.  There wasn’t, but it made my son drowsy, which was not unexpected.

 

            So for the first day, I watched my son drift in and out of sleep, and we both watched the slow drip, drip, drip from the IV.  One nice touch from the nurses:  they would give you warmed blankets if you wanted to rest.  A small comfort that meant a lot.

 

            Every so often my son’s slumber would be interrupted by the musical sound of the IV, letting the nurses know that a packet of medication was finishing and that another needed to be hooked up.  That sound got to be quite annoying, because it also would sound if the IV had any problems administering the medication.

 

            One of the concerns we knew going in about the chemo treatments is the possibility of nausea.  Joan said our son would have to take four prescription drugs to prevent it.  The way it was explained to him is that there are several systems in the body that can trigger nausea, and these drugs are each designed to prevent those triggers from starting.

 

            Every day this week, he would need to take a drug called Emend before coming in for chemo.  He then would take three other drugs when he got home, at various points through the night, Kytril, Compazine and Atavan.  He would have to take the drugs also on the weekend following this 5-day treatment as well.

 

            Our son did fine the first several days of chemo, save for being tired.  He ever went out a couple of times that week.  His appetite so far was good, but we were told that would change.

 

            More about chemo, next.