The battle is joined: Operation Overlord Commences

OK, that might be a bit melodramatic but bonus points to anyone that knows what Operation Overlord means without looking it up.

So at 8:00 this morning I showed up at the hospital to check in. It took just a few minutes and they sent me back to the oncology area. The oncology room at the hospital is very nice. They got me situated in what is essentially a lounge chair. The first thing they did was give me the menu for breakfast and lunch. I had scrambled eggs and bacon with hot chocolate for breakfast.

But before breakfast came they had to put in the IV. (Have I mentioned that I have a needle phobia yet?) Anyway once that was in they hooked me up to a liter (I think) of saline. The key thing with the main chemo drug I am getting is that it can do nasty things to your kidneys (along with the many other side effects.) so to help mitigate you have to drink fluids, lots of fluids. Before they give you the main drug you have to urinate 500 ML. (Not all at once but total.) Fortunately I started drinking lots a few days before. Nothing starts until that quota is met. I brought my notebook with me and started watching the movie Rudy. The original plan was to watch the extended edition of the Lord Of The Rings for each of the three main treatments. With radiation scheduled for 10:00 I thought it would be a bit disruptive so Rudy made more sense.

Radiation called a bit early so off I went. Right before I then I hit the 500ml goal so when I came back the other drugs would start. Radiation went quickly. I walked right in, stowed my stuff in the locker and got bolted down to the table. They are doing 7 different angles with the radiation. Once they got me into position the machine moved down to the right and started there. From then on the table I was on would move a bit and the main unit would rotate a bit more towards the right. Then stop and shoot twice with the radiation. After that it would move to the next location. I didn't time it but I think it was somewhere around 20 minutes. Tomorrow I will pay more attention. Today they didn't give me the shots for the salivary glands. The thought was that I had enough going on without that as well.

Then it was back to the chemo unit to start the drugs. The first thing they put in was a anti nausea medicine. After that it was diuretic. I can attest that the diuretic works great. They also had me take the anti nausea medicine the medical oncologist prescribed. That took about an hour and then it was onto the big drug. So at around 11:25 or so they hooked up the Cisplatin. That took an hour to go in. While the Cisplatin was going in lunch came. I got the roast pork tenderloin with stuffing and gravy and tapioca for desert. To drink I had coffee and apple juice.

After the Cisplatin was done they flushed the IV with more saline, took the IV out and I was done. That's it. All together it took about 5 hours from check in and that included the radiation treatment.

At this point I have to say that the people in the oncology unit at the hospital were great. They took the time to explain what was going on and never seemed rushed at all. I also have to say that the people at the radiation facility are also great to deal with. Starting treatment is a bit stressful and having friendly patient medical professionals as part of the team goes a long way to easing any anxiety I may have had getting treatment.

Now its time to go home. (Yes, I was writing this while hooked up to the IV) They have done their job and its my turn to do my job. My job is eating lots of small meals, drinking at least 64 ounces of clear fluids a day and resting when I need it. Actually that sounds sort of like what I do now. :-)

I will post something the next day or two to let you know how things are going.