One Down and Five To Go

Well, after 14 hours and 14 minutes, I have completed my first round of chemo.  YAY!  It was a very long day, but it went by fast and I had a good day.  I arrived at 9:00 am and they proceeded to do labs.  This is one reason it took longer than expected.  Normally they have me do labs the day before, but since I had to come on a different day they said that they would do them the morning of chemo.  They tried to access my port in the same spot they marked last week when I had the dye x-ray and nothing happened.  She called my doctor, who then called the doctor who put it in and asked him to come down and access it.  He was in surgery at the time so I had to wait about an hour for him to come.  He was able to access it the first time by feeling it,  The point of access was higher than where the circle was drawn and we asked if the port had moved.  He said the problem was when they drew the circle I was lying flat and when I sit up gravity pulls the skin down, so the circle was misleading.  Now I have to admit, I was getting a little discouraged when the nurse had trouble again and even considered pulling the plug on the whole thing.  However, I tried to be calm and ask for God to help.  Once the doctor came and was able to access it successfully, I felt better about it.  The nurses now have and idea where it is and have made notes in my file about how to locate it.  We then had to wait for my lab results to come back and for them to call my oncologist with the results to get her approval to start the meds.  They finally started the pre-meds about 1:10 and the chemo drugs at 4:26.  The first chemo drug was only supposed to take 3 hours to infuse, but it took close to five.  I think they wanted to go slow the first time to make sure I didn't have any trouble.  The second chemo drug was started about 10:20 and during this time I did feel a little bit of nausea, but nothing to bad.  After the last drug finished they had to run some saline through the port for about 15 minutes and then flush it out.  I left the hospital at 11:14 pm.  On the way home I felt ill at one point, but it didn't last long.  I am feeling alright at the moment, and I have medication I can take for nausea as needed.  Fortunately, in the future it should not take near as long, probably a maximum of 8 hours usually, but I am learning to expect the unexpected.  Thanks for all of the prayers. I have experienced peace and joy today.  They say the day or to after chemo can be the worse, so please keep praying.  I will post a list of specific prayer needs tomorrow.  It is pretty late and I should get some rest,  Good night and God bless.