Lymphomania: Treatment 1 is Done

So last Monday I started Treatment #1. All of the treatments after this will be done on a single day, but for this one, they split it up into two. If I'm not mistaken, this was to first make sure I didn't have a bad reaction to the Rituxan I got on day 1. Since a reaction was possible, my mom was there in case I couldn't drive afterward. Fortunately, there were no adverse reactions from the drug. Usual infusion time is 4-6 hours for this stuff, and they said I'd probably take the whole six hours the first time, then the day of, they said they'd probably take five hours. However, since they never had to slow the infusion rate, I got done in four (nice!). As an aside, my mom being there also gave one of the nurses the opportunity to inform my mom that she wanted to set her (the nurse's) daughter up with me.

Since I was going to be back in the next day, they just left the needle "plugged into" my port overnight, so I got to go around with a little tube coming out from behind a dressing on my collar.

The next day was only an hour and a half's worth of infusion time, so I was only there until lunch. This was good because I wasn't there for very long, but bad because I had enough time to go to work after that. The side effects were thankfully minor for this round. I had about three days of my stomach feeling "not quite right", but I wouldn't say it went so far as nausea. The second through fourth days after, my energy level was really low, but that just means more excuses to take a nap. :D My esophagus/larynx area was a little sore when I'd swallow liquid, but again, mostly just enough to be annoying. Finally, my taste changed some. Sweet stuff tasted really muted, and ... you know that feeling you get in your jaw when you first put something really tangy in your mouth? I get that with a lot of non-tangy foods.

It's now five days after treatment, and I'm feeling pretty much back to normal. I will say that I can't really tell a difference in the tumors in my neck and chest, which is honestly a little distressing since it was supposed to react pretty fast, and the doc said it was possible that a visible difference would be noticeable in one or two days. Now, I can't really draw any conclusions from this since I don't know how these things react, and it's very possible that this is normal. Still... it's noteworthy to me. Next appointment is Thursday. We'll see what he says.