MILESTONE - End of hardcore week #1

It's Friday - and I made it through my first hard core week ( that's one of four weeks of full-time in-the-chair chemo ). I'm still hooked up to the pump at this point and I feel tired but proud. This morning, like yesterday, I was 30 minutes late getting in to the chemo bay ; just something about getting your butt kicked doesn't make you want to rush to be on time. I have so many drugs at this point that my coffee tastes like asprin - or maybe they put asprin in the coffee here - who knows.

A few Friday Pictures for all of you out there:

BACKGROUND: Some of you have asked about the setup here. I'm in a recliner chair with a mobile IV pump next to me on casters. There's a pump tube stuck into the IV in my arm. The IV is changed every 2 or 3 days, so I keep it in overnight most of the week. The actual drugs are in bags attached to the poles on top of the pump stand, and the nurses change out my bags when they are empty. I'm getting dosed up at about 600ml / hour - so about 2.4 liters go into my body in a 4 hour session.


Here's what I look like this morning - I blame the doofy look on my crappy cell phone camera...


My drugs - they say the one bag is in brown paper because it's light-sensative, but I know it's to make me feel like it's booze...


The pump - it makes a hum noise that you get real used to, and also beeps when it faults.


My IV - recent studies show that the devil horn fingers make the drugs work better.