Chemotherapy 4

I'll be lying if I told you I was cool as a cucumber. Instead, I was a bundle of nerves.  I couldn't sleep last night as I envisioned the trouble I will be facing today. I believed in the power of prayer, yet I worry that God may have overlooked my troubles, hence the anxiety.

It went well.  I was flushed with steroid.  16 capsules (each 5 mg) orally taken at 6 pm yesterday, another 16 capsules taken at 8 am today, another capsule of a stronger dosage at 9 am and on top of this, they injected another capsule intravenously.  All this to prevent the inevitable side effects.

Wary about infection, I wore a face mask for the first time.  The nurse instructed me to remove the mask because they needed to monitor my face for the first sign of trouble.  I sat there at the edge of the couch waiting for the breathing difficulties and the fever which never came. (Praise the Lord!)

It was a three hour infusion because the diluted medication was dripped at a slow pace.

Remember Ms Chatterbox from the previous chemo treatment?  If not, READ HERE and HERE because horrors of horror I was seated next to her this time. This isn't going to go anywhere without a fair description. She's 52 years old, scrawny and short, weighing at the most 120 pounds if not less. The first thing you'll observe is her hard face. This is a woman who have struggled, knew what it was to have struggled and persevered from it all. A tough nut to crack. Don't get me wrong though. She may have a small frame but she had enough energy in her to melt the iceberg which hit The Titanic. I believe she packed all those energy in her tongue.

Before my interrogation began, she was telling her audience how beastly her unsavoury neighbour was. "I have never seen such an anti-social woman.  Why, the other day when there was a power outage, she came out of her house to ask me if I too have the power outage.  After that, she went right back into her dark house without uttering another word.  Have you ever seen such an unfriendly woman?  Anyone in her right mind would have stayed a little longer to chat some."

She had a mastectomy on her left which cost her $2000 which she is trying to claim from the Social Welfare.I found out all this by inserting between her rapid fire line of questioning just these three word,. "What about you?" 

Thankfully, her treatment was over shortly after and she took her leave.  Peace returned to the room.

There were a total of 25 names listed on the Chemo Board today.  15 of them were Breast Cancer cases.