Today...March 4...is Day 1. And day 1 is officially done. Dad and I arrived at Nebraska Cancer Specialists at 9:10AM. They checked dad's weight, blood pressure, and temperature - all were really good. Then we got settled in to the big comfy leather recliner chairs. Wendy (chemo nurse)came and started dad's IV and took some blood. The blood then goes to the lab to check all his numbers...red blood cells, white blood cells and platelettes. All his numbers looked good today (of course.) Then we met with Dr. Luke. He answered a few questions, the chest CT scan from last Thursday showed no metastic disease (really good!), and he gave us a couple new prescriptions for anti-naseau that dad will start tomorrow. (BTW, Dr. Luke also got a haircut over the weekend-I told him how nice it looked...and I noticed why I think Luke is so cute, he looks ALOT like Mike...coincidence? I think not.) Then we went back to the comfy leather recliners. Wendy came back and started fluids. Dad gets fluids for 1 hr, medicine for 1.25 hr, and then fluid again for 1 hr. In the first hour of fluids, dad also got a couple different medicines for anti-naseau. One of the medicines was "Emind" - we are so very fortunate...this medicine was just approved in the IV form two weeks ago. The doctor had written a prescription for the Emind; however, dad's co-pay was $220. When I called the doctor's office to ask about this exhorbitant cost, they said we could give the medicine to dad via the IV because of the new FDA approval and then it could be billed to the insurance as part of the chemo treatment. Dad finished his chemo at 2:00PM. Kathy (Barb's older sister) was able to get the afternoon off, so she joined dad and I at the cancer center around 11:30AM. The third picture is Kathy and dad. You might also notice in the pictures dad's urostomy bag. During today's session he was able to hook up to his overnight bag. By the end of the chemo session, his overnight bag was FULL. Wendy said that was really nice because most people receiving this chemo cocktail have to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes because of all the fluids...I guess there are benefits to having a bag rather than a bladder:)
Dad's first chemo session is over...now on to day 2...
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