Chemo Cycle One - DONE!

"ONE! ONE chemo done! Ah ah ah!" On Friday - after a full week of chemo - we went back to the Cancer Center to have the chemo pump removed. (Hooray!) Tony did extremely well this whole week - I am amazed at what a trooper he is (keep in mind he is receiving three different types of chemo). Luckily, he didn't have much in the way of nausea that couldn't be controlled with medicine. He didn't get sick at all (thank the Lord). The most noticeable effect was fatigue. He could generally get up and do what he needed to do, but by early afternoon, he started to crash a bit and would have to rest. For a guy that usually goes 90 miles per hour in every direction, this is a bit of an adjustment. He also has some residual "chemo-brain," (yes, they actually call it that!) which he says is hard to describe. He feels a wee bit detached and fuzzy-headed sometimes; I think this is usually just when he is tired. He says his sense of smell is heightened also - he can pick up things the rest of us don't notice. But all in all, if you didn't know better, you probably couldn't even tell he is having chemo - he's pretty amazing. I attribute this to his strength and also to a lot of prayers. You can't convince me the prayers aren't helping, because even the nurse that gave him the chemo said she was worried about him this week because she was "giving him some pretty nasty stuff." So I'm not trying to minimize what he's dealing with, but to have so few side effects at this point is really a blessing.

Now that he has been detached from his "leash" (the chemo pump), we have two weeks until his next treatment. We are 1/3 done with this part! We go back next week for lab work, the week after that to see the oncologist, and then we start Cycle 2. But we're not concerned with that right now - we're just enjoying being done with the first cycle. :)