Day One of Phase one Trial

I didn't sleep very well Sunday night. My back hurts from what appears to be a knotted muscle around my shoulder blade. So I was up multiple times that night. At 5:30 am, mom and I got up, had coffee and headed to the hospital. I dressed in my pretty blue dress and a big smile.


Me, dressed up in my pretty dress for my first day

To start with, I had to lay in a bed at the infusion center and let them run three tests. I think it was another EKG, but they had already given me the Benadryl and Tylenol that you take with Herceptin, so I was sleepy. I did play with the bed of course... lifting my feet, lifting my head, lowering it... until mom told me to just lay still.

I fell asleep pretty quickly after they started the Herceptin. I only woke up when they came in to put the IV in to check my blood.




Me, laying in my infusion bed

I woke up a couple more times, once from a dream that my Dad and I were in a field of what I first thought were flowers, but they turned out to be large purple butterflies. Mom stayed with me all day. I don't know how she could stand to sit there for 13 hours with nothing to do but listen to the history channel. 
The nurses had to take three samples of my blood. The first time, the IV worked. The second time, it didn't work at all. So, next, they stuck me in the hand. Then... the final blood check we had to wait to do a certain number of hours after the infusion. I wandered the halls, my back hurting, flapping my arms.  Finally, 9pm came. 


Sleeping princess!

The arm IV didn't work. My hand had already been used. Lymphedema in my right arm means we can't use that arm, so the nurse tried my hand again, but it wouldn't work. No veins would show up. *Sigh*... apparently, my veins hide when I am tense. So, I asked her to give me a few minutes.

Years ago, we went to the local Renn fest and we saw a hypnotist. I bought his CD to stop pain. I have listened to them so many times I know the whole starting sequence, and I can relax myself completely. So... I used those techniques to relax and TA-DA!  A vein! Finally!  The day is done!

Mom took me to get soup because I hadn't eaten ALL DAY!  I got back to the hotel with mom, we ate some soup, mom went to sleep and I, having slept all day, couldn't sleep. So... I took a shower. You know... this hotel is so awesome... they put us in a handicapped accessible room. So my shower has a stool and two shower heads. Let me tell you... if I ever re-do our shower, I am putting in a second head on the opposite side. It felt so amazing.

So Far, all I have had as side effects was a little bit of the poopies, some slight nausea and my temperature fluctuates. I was terribly hot... then terribly cold. But that has all stopped in the past two hours. Tomorrow is a day off for me. I have no tests and maybe I can spend my day napping and visiting with an old friend.