11/22/2012

My Cancer Blog

Looking for a little twisted gratitude just in time for Thanksgiving...
check out my new blog: http://heidiscancerfight.blogspot.com/

11/07/2012

The Chemo Begins

So I started chemo today. I think most everyone that knows me has found out the news now thanks to Facebook. I should've taken a picture of me sitting in my little recliner hooked up to the IV. Next time, I guess. The chemo session went well. Took about 5 hours all told, but it should go faster in future weeks as we get the routine down. They first pumped me full of a bag of Benadryl which just about had me completely knocked out (I wish!). Then they pumped me full of a Steroid that perked me right back up again. Then I started on the chemo drip. They warned me to flag them down if I had any reactions to the med. About 10 minutes in I was hit by a wave of feeling flushed, nauseated and short of breath. Anthony raised his had and 3 nurses ran over and turned off the machine, handed me a barf bag and gave me oxygen. I recovered almost as fast as I got ill! They were great. So they pumped another bag of Steroids in and had me wait 30 minutes, then started the chemo drip again at half the speed and this time we got through it all. So far today I am feeling fine. I feel buzzy in my head and chest, which might be all the steroid, but otherwise just as normal as I felt this morning. But tomorrow and Friday are more likely to be the harder days, so we'll see. During all this Anthony and I attempted to watch The Avengers, but with all the interruptions e only made it through half the movie. We also met a nice couple there, our age, Rayna and Mark, who live close by. I find it very helpful to talk to other people about their experiences. It's just nice to know there are a lot of us going through all this together and this cancer patient community (past and present) has a natural way of reaching out to each other. It's actually very cool.

So just so I can remember all the love from today, I'm going to record mine and Debbie's Facebook posts and all the sweet comments I received and read throughout the day:




Heidi Duffin Johnson
11 hours ago
I've got my game face on today (thanks for the wig Johnson family). Bring on the chemo! I'm ready!
(For those I haven't had a chance to tell, I've been diagnosed with breast cancer and treatments start today)
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sd


After being diagnosed with breast cancer a few weeks ago, my sister Heidi goes in for her first round of chemo in the morning. Please, send up a quick prayer for her and her little family.
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