A Day Well Spent

As I sit here and post I am tired but it feels like a good tired and that today turned out exactly as it was meant to be.

I had promised one of the ladies in town who requires chemotherapy that I would be there for her first chemo session and I wanted to keep that promise. She was supposed to have had her initial chemo last week, which was on a week 3 post chemo for me and would have worked very well. That didn't work out and so her first chemo fell to this a.m., two days post chemo for me. I wondered whether I would be able to keep that promise but with a little help from my friends I did it.

Right after chemo I do not like to drive as I find my eyes are a little fuzzy and it takes a day or two to feel like I am safe out there. This meant that I would need rides to and from my activities today. Everything worked out so well, I hope the people who gave me the rides felt the same way ;).

My friend and co-worker Nicki had a meeting scheduled at the site where the Cancer Centre is for exactly the same time as this lady's chemo. I quickly emailed her and she readily agreed to pick me up and drive me there first thing this morning. In the afternoon a few of the ladies in the church and I had arranged to meet to discuss the Christmas dinner and program. Ev was one of these ladies and lives very close to the Cancer Centre, she agreed to pick me up from there about 1230 and Jane lives on my side of town so she became my ride home. I couldn't have asked for better chauffeurs.

'Benny' met me exactly where we had agreed and we went down to the Medical Day Care. There wasn't much of a wait at all, a young nurse name Stephanie called 'Benny' and escorted us to Area A where she was placed in a chair. 'Benny' has a needle phobia and did not have a port so she needed to have an IV initiated. She was very brave and I did my best to keep her distracted. As a nurse, I have to say that her veins are some of the best I have seen, so it was quick work for Stephanie.

The first chemo was the epirubicin push which took the most amount of time - four syringes which are pushed manually, just as I had with my first three chemo sessions. 'Benny' was a trooper throughout. Following that the 5FU and cyclosphosphamide seemed to take hardly any time at all as we visited throughout.

'Benny' did so well, her last obstacle being the removal of the IV, which she was also a little squeamish about but was nothing after all. What a privilege to have been able to be there with her, she will do fine in her subsequent chemo's and she is well prepared for handling her first few days post chemo at home.

Take care everyone.