"Today will be your hardest day."

"Today will be your hardest day."  That's what my oncologist said to me yesterday morning.  I would have preferred that he said something like, "This will be a breeze, don't worry."

I'm not sure it was my hardest day, but it was a tough one.  There was a lot of shuffling.  Check in, labs, prep of my port with ladacane cream, chemo class, baseline heart ultrasound, meeting with my doctor and then the chemo suite.

Our timing was bad.  When we walked in it was busy and within five minutes of starting, there were two "events".  The patients were having really bad reactions to their infusions and all the nurses were rallying to get the patients heart rate and breathing up, etc.  Scary stuff.  Things calmed down and the room thinned.  They started me on pre-meds which is Benadryl, anti-nausea and saline.  After that the nurse came around the corner, dressed in a full-length heavy-duty gown, long heavy-duty gloves and goggles.  She was getting ready to administer one of the drugs, the "Red Devil".  She had two large syringes of a bright red drug - think super hero villain serum.  She has to wear all of the protection, because the drug will eat your skin, if it comes into contact with it.  Yup, and the drug got injected into the top of my heart.  Joy.

After the Red Devil, the second drug got hooked up and within an hour, I was done.  We hopped in the car, grabbed a bite to eat and headed home.  The weather was amazing and I got a hike in with Walter.  I took the anti-nausea meds as prescribed and laid down.  Things got a little rocky after that.  I was pretty nauseated, even with the meds.  It was unpleasant, but I never lost my lunch, so that was good.  Solid sleep came and things seem to be better this morning.

I'll swing by the clinic this morning to get a shot that will boost bone marrow function, which allows for me to be on a two-week schedule with the meds.  I've taken a Claritin, as the anti-histamine helps with the big bone pain that the shot can cause.

I'm hoping to get to my kid's first basketball game this afternoon and work on staying hydrated so this doesn't get me down.

Thank you to all that sent me words of love and encouragement.  I appreciate you all so much.

Thank you to my husband. He does such an amazing job taking care of me.  He is a good man.  If you know him, you agree.

So, fingers crossed that things stay good and I can stay on top of it all.