Aaron Chemo 1 Is Done

9.5 hours. 8am-5:30pm. 17 medications since last night, including one fruit-punch-colored injection that they lovingly called "The Red Devil."

But it all went as well as it could have gone. No immediate bad reactions to the drugs. All according to plan. And the plan is to hit this whole cancer thing...hard.

Liz wasn't allowed to come inside due to Covid restrictions. It took 45 minutes of pilates-like fun to get my new port to work right, and then I had a candor-filled discussion with the PA about drug options and insurance coverage. We parted ways as friends.

As I walked back to the treatment room, the oncologist saw me down the hall, then immediately glided toward me, wagging his finger in the air as he came closer. He patted me on the shoulder and talk-yelled, "Today is the first day of the end of this cancer. Let's do this!"

I appreciate the sincere encouragement.

Echocardiogram tomorrow on the heart, just to set a baseline to check against in the future. Then blood work and doctor visit next week to check labs and WBCs (white blood cell count). I'll probably feel pretty terrible between treatment days 3-15 (Happy Thanksgiving!), but we'll see what happens.

Hair loss will be almost certain before Chemo 2.

We have friends who went through a couple of terrible Lymphoma treatment cycles. He's miraculously doing well, and we bought neon green Superman logo t-shirts a few years ago to show our support for his treatment journey.

Look what Liz surprised me with this morning.

We fight on!