My First Chem-HO June 2nd, 2010

Today I started my chemotherapy treatment. I was nervous all day long! Anyway, I made it and honestly it wasn't that bad. That being said, the road ahead might be a different story. Here is some chemotherapy education for everyone.

There are many different chemotherapy drugs out there for all types of cancer. Each patient is assigned a type of chemotherapy and a duration and not all breast cancer patient's have the same chemotherapy treatment. I'm taking two chemo drugs called Adriamycin and Cytoxan also known as A/C. I will be taking A/C for a duration of four treatments every other week. Seems easy enough but let me fill you in on the side effects: hair loss, nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, loss of fertility, diarrhea, mouth sores, bladder irritation and bleeding, low blood counts, eyes watering, red urine, and darkening of the nail beds. I'm hoping that I don't feel any of these things but I'm sure that will not be the case. I'm very thankful that today went well and seeing others going through even harder stuff at the clinic made me realize that I'm very lucky! One poor man had being getting chemotherapy since December 2009. I only have to do four treatments and now I only have three left so I'm counting my blessings. I'll keep you all up-to-date on how my weeks goes but for now it's time to rest!