Justin’s First Treatment

The time leading up to the first treatment can be full of many emotions, but it is overall a very uneventful day.  Here’s how it went down…

Our day started at Justin’s chiropractic appointment just before 8 a.m.  After an adjustment, we dropped Adalyn off at daycare, then headed to the oncologist’s office where Justin would have his first chemotherapy treatment.   Before going into the office, I gave Justin the photobook that I made for him.  It included photos and messages from his family and friends, even Tucker had a message for him.

He was really surprised and touched by the gift.

By 8:45 we were heading into the doctor’s office.  The first thing he did was have blood work drawn.  The blood work checks to be sure certain levels, his white blood cell count for instance, are good to go before treatment.  Because this was his first treatment, we didn’t anticipate any problems.  We then met with someone to discuss health insurance and payments.  Due to his prior appointments, tests and surgery, it wasn’t surprising to find out that we had already met our maximum out of pocket expenses for 2013.

Did you know that lime green is the color for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma support?

This means that we have already spent way too much money, but this is also a win for Team Mistretta.  No more copayments! (At least for the rest of the year.)  After that, we met with Dr. Ingram.  We have been very pleased with him so far.  He takes his time with us, answers all of our questions thoroughly (even if it is the thousandth time we’ve asked the same question just a different way) and is very encouraging.  Dr. Ingram answered a few of our last minute questions and then we were off to the treatment room for chemotherapy.

The treatment room is probably as anyone would expect.  It has reclining chairs set up throughout with an IV pole and a chair for a visitor at each. There are many nurses moving about and snacks laid out for patients and their guests.    Most of the patients were either napping, reading or listening to music.  Overall, the room was very quiet.  We met Justin’s nurse, Heather, who is very nice.  She has a very calm nature and that was greatly appreciated with our emotions running so high.  She explained the process, each drug and its side effects and gave us the lay of the land.  She started Justin on an IV (this was the only hitch in the day as she had to stick one vein, dig around and then switch to another vein), began him on the anti-nausea medication and then came back to administer subsequent drugs and check on him throughout for any reactions or complications.  Justin had a snack about halfway through.  I was so proud of him when he asked me to go to the cafeteria to get something healthy, all of the snacks in the treatment room are junk food.  We’ll have to remember to bring our own snacks from now on so that the cafeteria can’t price gouge for a cup of yogurt!  Around two o’clock we were finished and ready to go home.  Justin was feeling good, so we stopped for lunch before picking up Adalyn from daycare.

He was really surprised by his gift.

The doctor said to keep everything as normal and routine as possible, so once we were home we went about our usual business.  We got ready for the next day, had a visit from good friends and ate dinner.  We tried to go to bed early, but Justin was wide awake from the steroid in the anti-nausea medication.  Next time we’ll know for him to take a Benadryl on the night of his treatment to help him sleep.   The next morning we got up and went to work.  Justin has felt good ever since and has not experienced any major side-effects so far. He worked full days on both Thursday and Friday.

The next issue to look out for is fatigue.  It is likely to set in within the next few days, but should only last between 12 and 36 hours.  The doctor said that this first treatment would help us to predict how Justin will experience side-effects for future treatments.  So far, we are feeling very hopeful that he will do well for each subsequent treatment.  One down and (hopefully) only seven more to go!

This is when he realized that the book includes photos and messages from his friends and family.