October 8th, 2014
Day One in Infusion Center was a roller coaster ride. The original estimate
was that I would be in for about 6 hours. I ended up staying for over 10 hours.
A little over a month ago I had a Bard Infusion Port surgically implanted in my
chest. It's just under the skin, about the diameter of a quarter, with a bulb that looks like
the rubber primer bulb you push when you're priming a lawnmower or weed wacker engine. When I get my drugs, they just pop a special needle through the skin into the port and away we go. (I tried to post a photo of the port, but couldn't convince my software to do so, sorry.)
This port taps into one of my main arteries with a direct path to the heart. (My wife figured out how to do that by other means, but that's a different story for a different blog...)
I was given a large dose of Benadryl to counteract any allergic reaction I might have due to
receiving the drug. First I had a bunch vital statistic and blood work done. After finding
coast is clear, they order the drug. Nowadays drugs are so expensive, they don't want to pull a drug before they verify that (a) show up for my appointment and (b) my body statistics
verigied that I'm healthy enough to accept the drugs.
After the preliminaries, I was hooked up to Rituxin and away we go. About and hour and one-half into it, my ears started scratching, soon my scalp was itching, and I had what felt like a hive the size of a golf ball in my throat. I was having an allergic reaction. I was feeling
and talking like Mr. Smithers in "The Simpsons episode where he gets stung by a bee and has a reaction.Since I had a hive in my throat, they cut off the drugs and gave me more Benadryl to counterract the allergic reaction. They also gave me some steriods, ruining my remaining chances for a Major League Baseball career. The itching went away fairly quickly, and the thoat issue about an hour later. Then the cancer drug was resumed two hours later at a slower drip rate, neccesitating a longer episode.
In addition to the hives, I felt some flu-like symptoms, which was considered normal since the cell war within my body had begun immediately. As the war begins, the white blood cells go to work contributing to the ill feeling.
Between the white cell battle and the Benedryl, I was pretty loopy. Throw in the throat hive
affecting my speech along with the Benadryl affecting my brain, I was pretty incoherent for a
while.
The drugs resumed, I got my full dose, and I was out the door just over 10 & 1/4 hours.
Quite a day, ending on a positive, yet fatiguing note.
Thanks for reading.
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