June 12 - First Chemotherapy session

I've been dreading this for a while.  I feel like once I start down this path I'm committed.

There is a lot more to chemo than I thought.  The main chemo drugs I'm getting today are Taxol and Carboplatin.  The evening before they prescribed 20 mg of steroids and 20mg more this morning immediately after breakfast.  One hour before I was given a cream to apply to my chemo port to numb it.  That worked very well.

You have to wonder how they learned about all the extra drugs they give you to help with chemo.  Did the first chemo patients go through hell before they came up the helper drugs?

The chemo session was painless.  It lasted about 3hr 15 min.  The nurse said it would go faster next time since I did not show any problems with the two main drugs - they will pump it into me faster.  They have WiFi and I was working and browsing the internet the entire time.  It went pretty quickly.  During the time I was there I saw about 14 people also getting chemo.

Below the drug list is the side effects I may see.  Oh boy.

Symptoms, What to expect the next few days

Days 3-4-5 are the worst after each session. Example I'm getting chemo on Wed, which is day 1. 3-4-5, are Fri. Sat, Sun.

Day 2, feel pretty normal, little tired, not nausea. Friday start looking for symptoms:

1. Nausea
2. Constipation or diarrhea
3. Fatigue
4. Blood dripping out my eyeballs
5. Farts that stink so bad metal nearby begins to melt

Hair loss (Alopecia) begins soon, but slowly. They told me to use a softer brush. What's softer than "nothing"?

My Chemotherapy Drugs (June, 6, 2013)

Here are all the drugs they gave me through my port today.  You may be more interested in the drugs below the blue text than the ones above.

Title of the drug list

Carboplatin + Paclitaxel + XRT (Esophageal)

C1D1 Cycle Day Approved by Gruenberg, Daniel R., MD

Paclitaxel, inj: 120 mg (50Mg/M2) as directed by IVPB, Rate: over 1 hour

Instructions: Mix in 250-500mL NS. Administer using Non-DEHP-containing equipment and through an in-line 0.22 micron filter. Paclitxel is a vascular irritant (sbq: good to see that the substance they're injecting directly into my vein is a vein irritant\).  Aka, Taxol

Carboplatin, inj: 290 mg (2 target AUC) as directed IVPB, Rate:over 30-60 minutes

Instructions: Mix in 100-150 mL D5W or NS. Carboplatin is an irritant.

The two drugs above are the chemo therapy.  The drugs below help me handle the drugs above.  The helper drugs only last a short time (e.g., anti-nausea), which is why they also prescribed pills -- to take up the slack.

Palonosetron hcl, inj: 25 mg as directed I.V. (anti-nausea, Aloxi is the brand name) My nurse shot this into the drip line.

Dexamethasone sod phosphate, inj: (steroid) 10 mg as directed I.V. - calms down immune, so body received gives me energy, 3

Diphenhydramine hcl, inj: 50 mg as directed I.V. (generic equiv to Benadryl, anti-histamine). 2

Rantidine hcl, inj: 50 mg as directed I.V. (antiacid) Note: today we are substituting Famotidine, a generic equivalent)

Typically the Diphenhydramine and Famotidine are combined into one. Dripped at a rate — there's a pump.