Report on Day One!!

Message from Jan:

Well, we're off and running! We (Al, Maija and Jan) just got home from Maija's first big day of her treatments. We were at Virginia Mason from 7:45 until 4:00. It was a busy day, but not painful or unpleasant. Maija has a nice "room with a view", so she called Martha W. who works on FAB-33 and told her to wave! We couldn't see the wave, but when she raised and lowered her blinds, Maija was able to spot her. (It really doesn't take much to entertain us....thanks, Martha!).

I promise I won't write as long a message as Maija, because I'm still a working girl (altho not for long....I announced my retirement yesterday and will be available for full-time friendship and nursing on October 15th!).

So, Maija's day consisted of 4 liters of fluid via her PICC line (hydration is REALLY important during these treatments), 1-hour of chemo drip, 15 minutes of radiation, and the attachment of her "dog" (named by nurse Mandy). The dog is a contraption that she must wear 24/7 and provides a very slow and constant chemo drip (her second type of chemo medicine). This drug is called 5FU for short. We created a clever way to remember the name: 5-F-U cancer!! You can deduce what the F and U stand for...

In between all these exciting treatments, she went potty about 30 times (because of all the fluids), ate one container of yogurt, half a tuna sandwich and drank a couple small cans of juice. I worked on our treatment calendar, so we can organize all the volunteers. Al ran some errands for Maija's Dad. So, as you can see, a busy but absolutely fine first day.

As predicted, Maija is now (5:30 p.m.) starting to shiver and feel like she's getting the flu. Nurse Nancy warned us that the first time you have an interferon shot, you will feel pretty punky about 2-4 hours afterwards. These symptoms will last 3-4 hours, so by bedtime, she should be fine. They sent her home with some very powerfull nausea meds. We named one of them!! It costs $600 for 7 of these pink wonders (fortunately she only takes one a day)!! We named it the "princess pill". Nurse Mandy loved that.

Okay, the final topic: what to name that contraption that her I.V.'s hang from. She is hooked up to that metal wonder all day, so we really feel it would be rude not to address it by name. Any suggestions? One of the nurses said another patient named his "Chemo-sabee"! Get it?? We want something different, so we're looking for suggestions.

All for now!

Jan