Iron Infusions

There hasn't been too much going on around here lately. The weekend was spent lying around and putting up Christmas. Literally. I accomplished no house projects or laundry or bathroom cleaning.

Today I spent the day getting my first iron infusion. And I mean the ENTIRE DAY. I went in at 8am for labs, then it was off to the oncologist's office to discuss the infusions and course of treatment for all my low blood counts over the next few weeks and then it was off to the "chemo delivery room." I'm not sure what the real name for it is, but it's where everyone is lined up in hospital recliners all hooked up to IV's receiving various methods of chemo. Well, except for me and one other guy who was also getting iron treatments. It was a little surreal. I got there around 9:30am. They checked my temp and blood pressure and started the IV. Only two sticks this time, thank you very much. Then I had to get a bag to saline into my system. Then a small bag of something that had something to do with anti-rejection. It started with a "D." Then a bag of Benadryl to help with allergic reactions to the iron. That pretty much knocked me out. After that, they did a test run of the iron. One in three people have an allergic reaction so they test you first to make sure you can tolerate it. I've had reactions to blood transfusions before and apparently the reaction to the iron is pretty similiar. I was fine. Then it was time to start the Big Dose. They started that a little after noon and it took over 2 hours! I didn't get to leave until 2:45pm. It was kind of like going on a really long car ride without actually getting anywhere and there really wasn't anything to look forward to. Brad kept the children at the house all morning. He tried to work and when Eli just wouldn't leave him alone, he called another little boy down the street to come over and play. When his mom, Kristy, found out what was going on, she became my knight in shining armor. She let Brad keep her son while she ran her younger daughter to ballet and then took my children home for lunch and to play all afternoon. It was an absolute life-saver. About that time, I was getting really bored and antsy so Brad was able to come and hang out for the last hour of treatment and then take me to a really late lunch. More like a lunner! I had taken a book with me but the anti-rejection medications made me very dizzy and it was hard to read and they had a TV there you can watch, but it was kind of a common TV and the "chemo room" is very quiet and depressing and I just felt a little bad turning it on. There were snacks, too, but one can only eat so many granola bars and cheese crackers. Unfortunately, one of the side effects to the iron infusions is feeling like you have the flu once the benadryl wears off. It gradually tapers off and by tomorrow I'll feel as good as new...maybe even better if my blood counts do what they are supposed to. While we were at lunch, Brad had a work emergency he needed to go see about and I just needed to go to bed so Kristy just kept my children at her house. She even offered to feed them dinner, but we had bowls of cereal waiting at home. Seriously, we're pretty upscale around here sometimes! :) Thank you, thank you, thank you Kristy!

It was the first time I'd actually been around people who were getting IV chemo. My treatment has always been surgery or a pill. That place is a little depressing. The nurses are really great. They bring you warm blankets and coffee and share their personal pumpkin spice creamer when the waiting room is out of creamer and make sure you have everything you need, but everyone in there is just sick. No way to get around that. There were people there shrinking their tumors so they could have a mastectomy and people there on their last chemo treatment after having done it for twos year and people there with more tubes than you can count. I felt a little guilty just getting iron. It gave me lots of time to admire people maintaining their dignity in the face of the horrible. People of all ages and races and walks of life just doing what they need to do.Not too many visitors stay for the IV part, it seems. There aren't many extra chairs. Plus, what are they gonna do? I did learn that a normal chemo treatment takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours so the caregivers usually go do a little errand running or medicine picking up or whatever. If it didn't mean that someone I loved was sick, I would have rather been one of those people.

The best part of today was that I was told I only had to get one iron infusion this week. They are going to check my blood counts on Wednesday and Friday and give me B-12 shots on those days, as well, but no iron infusions until next Monday. It should be faster next Monday, too, since they don't have to do all the preliminary testing to make sure I don't have a reaction. It should only take about three hours on Monday. Sheesh. I'm going to make Brad let me take his laptop so I can do some catch-up on the blogging. Maybe I'll even check my Facebook account again. :)