First sparkling infusion:
Wednesday, June 12. First, my diagnosis on our thirtieth dating anniversary...now, my first chemotherapy session on Charles's birthday. I picked him up an amazing single-serving birthday cake on the way to the hospital.
My oncologist checked my labs, approved me for treatment and I was off to the infusion room...where I would get an intravenous form of medicine that I preferred to call "sparkling infusion" (and instructed the nurses to do same).
When the nurse kicked things off by injecting saline into my new cyborg port, my mouth filled with a metallic taste. A few more preliminaries and... sparkling infusion, activate!
Charles brought me pizza when he got off work. I gave him his birthday surprise. We hung out and ate while I soaked in my chemo--I mean, sparkling infusion. Three hours later, they set me up with another sparkling infusion pump that would work its unicorn magic over the next three days while I went about my business outside the hospital.
Per my oncologist, potential side effects...
Acute (and not-so-cute) cold sensitivity. Nausea, neuropathy, insomnia, and hey, death... I decided not to get too freaked out, though. I was in this to win this.
I refused to take the prescribed medications for nausea and pain (no judgments, this has just been my approach, as I think I've mentioned). My go-to pain drug was/is Rick Simpson Oil--which, if you're not familiar with it, is a super-concentrated cannabis edible specifically invented for cancer treatment. It helped with the nausea and insomnia. Also, it's supposed to be highly anti-inflammatory AND doesn't cause constipation (a symptom I was all too familiar with) like many big pharma options.
Throughout the summer, I did have some side effects, from cold sensitivity shooting through my fingers like electrical current to lighting bolts zapping through my skull if I bit into anything sweet or cold. Sometimes I experienced the sensation of crushed ice on my lips and occasionally I felt nauseated.
Kind of scary to me all around, but not too bad, and eventually all these side effects subsided.
Throughout the six sessions of my first round of treatment, I had some not-so-great days and even some terrifying days, but I also took part in some really COOL things which I'll go into in another blog post. The main thing is...I got through it.
Doing that first round, I also underwent an aggressive six-week naturopathic protocol designed to complement my Western treatment that included three vitamin C IVs a week and bunch of other whacky-seeming therapies, such as BRD (a type of Rife machine) and the HOCAT (ozone) sauna.
Nutrition-wise, in addition to my naturopathic supplementation, I found that restricting calories the days before and after sparkling infusion helped diminish my side effects.
By the end, I had sort of found a rhythm to this two-pronged therapeutic approach to cancer. Of course, the CT scan in September would have its own input as to how I was doing, but again...I got through it.
End note:
I am putting this video here just for fun, because sometimes it's good to look at something silly when life gets heavy.
Until next time.