A week of firsts

I’ve had three sessions of radiation and one session of chemo this week. Some of it has been pretty traumatic and some of it was fairly easy. As is to be expected, getting to know the lay of the land has actually been the most challenging.

I rocked up on Wednesday with my overnight bag and my folder full of paperwork, ready for action. It said that I was supposed to check in for chemo and that happens at station 33. No specific time mentioned, so I went early and set off to find 33 and get settled in before my radiation session which was scheduled for 14:00.

I caused a lot of chaos at station 33. Nobody told me you actually have to wait till they call you to come in when there’s an available bed, so station 33 wasn’t ready for me and sent me on my merry way again. I found myself a waiting room and read more or less an entire book on my Kindle app feeling pretty grumpy.

At 13:45 I wandered down to the Service Point to clock in for radiation. That actually went quite well. I was told that the first time takes a bit longer because they need to program the settings, round about 45 minutes or so, but I was done in 20.

Thursday morning we got the call that a bed was ready for me now, so I chucked something in the slow cooker for Andy and Nicola and set out once again with my bags. I arrived at the Service Point only to be sent to patient registration instead for check in. It went very smoothly there at least and they actually gave me a map to station 33. I mean I found it by myself the day before eventually, but I thought that was a nice touch.

Settled in with my new roommate Katja, who was super nice and told me loads of things that are actually really handy to know. She is an absolute angel, and I was really lucky to get someone like her on my first stay. I met the doctors who administer the chemo and the one in particular I got on well with. I was scared spitless for this first, but he got me so relaxed that we ended up cracking jokes (about my pain to come). Maybe that approach is not for everyone but it really took my panic levels down to a manageable level and I appreciated it.

For my next trauma I went for what I thought was going to be an easy peasy second round of radiation. It turned out there was another internal procedure no one bothered to tell me about and I got to know it the kak way. The “Service Point” closes at 16:00, my appointment was for 16:10, so no one there of course. There was a sign up saying to have a seat and you would be called. So I did just that. Nobody called. Other people arrived with a appointment roughly an hour after mine, they got called, still nothing. So I went to radiation to see what was potting. Keep in mind that I’m not supposed to go in with an empty bladder and I have to drink at least 2 liters of water a day. My eyes were watering by 16:00 already and this was now more than an hour later! There was an above average chance that I was going to make a puddle on their floor or worse even, in their machine once they put me in it.

No one even gave me a chance to ask a question. Station 17 said they were done for the day, go to 15. And 15 said they’re full, wait to be called. I had an epic wobble and phoned Andy to sob in his ears. He recommended I shout at them, just then someone from 17 walked by so I shoved the phone in her hands and unleashed Andy on them. I am not sure exactly what he said to her but it must have been good because I got bumped to the front of the queue, four doctors came to apologise to me and they gave me chocolate as a peace offering. 🤣 Andy is my hero.

So it turns out the other procedure which isn’t written down anywhere, but which everyone except me knows about apparently is after 16:00 you have to report to station 15 to let them know you are there. If you’re booked into the ward for chemo your appointment for radiation gets changed automatically to a later one and they phone station 33 when they want you to come down instead. After the second treatment I felt lightly sunburnt, but I am applying all the lotions and potions they gave me and the feeling was thankfully short lived.

Back to the ward, where I found another bread dinner with some sort of ham that I am not allowed to eat anyway. You’d think that since they gave me the restrictions, they would also give me the food I’m allowed but apparently not. Whatever… The doctors told me they have no control over catering and I could either eat what I got and hope for the best or bring my own food. (Aha, now it’s really starting to feel like a government hospital!)

The chemo doctor popped in again to discuss potential side effects with me and to prep my IV drip. One paragraph in he said something that I couldn’t quite understand, so I asked if he could go a bit slower or maybe just explain that bit in English. He switched everything to English and because of my accent he even threw in a bit of Dutch 🤣 which then automatically triggered me to switch to Afrikaans. We had a good laugh and carried on in English for which I was very grateful.

Look, I wasn’t expecting to feel like a million bucks going through any of this treatment, so some of the side effects I already knew about, but a few new ones came up and of those the most memorable for me were the following: I could potentially lose my hearing. Not very common but it can happen. I could end up with nerve damage in my hands and feet, they could end up dead or alternatively with permanent pins and needles and I was to report anything like that to him immediately if I felt it. I asked if he could fix it and he said no, but he could slow down treatment to see if it helps limit the damage, other than that he could offer a opportunity to be heard and he could record my reaction for science. Great. Most memorable potential side effect was that this chemo in combination of the radiation would very likely sort out my cervical cancer, but there was a chance that it would cause me leukemia in about 20 years time. Without the treatment I would not get to those 20 years in any event, so it was probably the better of the two options.

First chemo started on Friday. It was tough. More in the head than anywhere else…okay also maybe in the veins because my funny doctor really sucks at sticking in needles. He apologised but I told him not to worry, he had the next 2 months to practice. We had another chuckle about that. He was lightly tapping my arm to try and piss off a vein into showing itself and he apologised again for hitting me haha, as if. I said he can’t call that a hit and he should put his back into it. 🤣 I ended up with two drips. One on the elbow almost and one on the other side in the crook of my arm. Both of these spots I have never been dripped in, and I can see why. I was bed bound for the day because the stupid things were very unstable. They kick you off with 1.5 liters of saline, then the poison, then another liter of saline and then about half a liter of glucose solution. It took forever to get all that in even with two arms going.

At first I was fine, other than my legs swelling up from all the water, and I thought that for a first time I actually expected much worse. The side effects only really hit me by Saturday when I was home again. Waves of nausea and waves of exhaustion. I am sometimes riding the waves and sometimes they are riding me.

This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better…I am aware. Only one way and that is through.