"Club Class" chemo... and a kick in the ass!

Course 1, Part 1 Done - and happily back home. All is good.

So what happened?
1) Firstly they inject some anti-sickness drugs through a canula in your arm (approx 15 mins)
2) Then gave me a saline drip (just to keep the vein open, while waiting for pharmacy to prepare the chemo - I'm on an 'ABVD' treatment, for those who fancy a google search....)
3) Then inject drug one (red one - more cherryade than ribena in colour...) through the canula. Painless, and pretty quick
4) Then another one - maybe 10 mins?
5) Drug 3 is then via a drip. Takes a little longer, maybe 20 minutes
6) While the 4th and final one is another drip, but this took around and hour and a half.

Aside from a little arm discomfort (treated by a heat cushion), it was a pretty stress free and thankfully non-eventful day, tho' there may be tougher times ahead.

Sitting in an electronic 'lazy boy chair' (think BA Club Class), it was bit like flying - read a bit, talk a bit, snooze a bit, have some food... and then ultimately think "are we there yet?" as after 4 hours, it's starting to get a bit dull, Club Class or not! Last drip seemed to take ages, and I was absolutely bursting for the loo! What a relief when that finished, and I can confirm that the 'cherryade' had definitely worked it's way through the system...

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Yesterday was a little different though - I had to have a bone marrow biopsy (probably not correct term, sorry to the medics among you). This is another of the many 'baseline' tests they do before starting treatment. This involves, with only local anesthetic;
- sticking a needle into you, through a bone to extract some bone marrow/fluid (or something!).
- sticking something else (i didn't ask...) into the same hole to extract a piece of bone.

When he said that a good place to do this is through the sternum, I suspect i looked a little faint! I don't have a huge 'fear' of needles as such, I just don't particularly want to watch when it's being done! Fortunately they did it from my pelvis, and while it was relatively quick, I can best describe the results as like being kicked in the bum by a donkey. Very hard. Don't want to do that again in a hurry.

After finally crunching the bone piece out, the Dr asked if I wanted to have a look... "er, no thanks, I get queasy watching Casualty!" That donkey's kick hasn't worn off yet - even with pain killers the next day.

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Finally for today, many thanks again for the huge number of emails, calls and messages sent through. I've literally been contacted from the USA, Australia and Africa, as well as the UK today. The Blackberry has been on fire! I can't possibly respond to everyone immediately, so please don't feel you are being ignored. Colette and I have read everything, even the abusive comments about not missing my terrible jokes (Rob!).